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*'  'Pardon's  the  z.'ord  to  all:  Whatever  folly 
men  commit,  he  their  shortcomings  or  their 
vices  zuhat  they  may,  let  tis  exercise  forbearance ; 
remembering  that  when  these  faults  appear  in 
others;  it  is  our  follies  and  vices  that  we  behold. 
They  are  the  shortcomings  of  humanity,  to  which 
we  belong;  whose  faults,  one  and  all,  we  share; 
yes,  even  those  very  faults  at  which  we  now  wax- 
so  indignant,  merely  because  they  have  not  yet 
appeared  in  ouj'selves.  They  are  faults  that  do 
not  lie  on  the  surface.  But  they  exist  down  there 
in  the  depths  of  our  nature;  and  should  anything 
call  them  forth,  they  will  come  and  show  them- 
selves, just  as  we  nozv  see  them  in  others.  One 
man,  it  is  true,  may  have  faults  that  are  absent 
in  his  fellow;  and  it  is  undeniable  that  the  sum 
total  of  had  qualities  is  in  some  cases  very  large; 
for  the  difference  of  individuality  between  man 
and  man  passes  all  measure." — Schopenhauer, 


Prof,  George  B.  Foster,  University  of  Chicago:  "A 
stirring  story,  faithful  to  truth  and  helpful  to  a  better 
understanding  and  feeling." 

W.  N.  C.  Carlton,  Esq.,  Librarian,  Newberry  Library, 
Chicago  (in  a  letter  to  the  author):  "I  shall  place 
your  book  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Library 
where  present  day  and  future  students  of  the  history 
of  your  race  will  find  it  a  most  significant  document." 

The  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle:  "From  Superman  to 
Man  is  a  vindication  of  the  American  Negro," 

Hon.  George  W,  Ellis,  F,  R.  G,  S,  (eight  years  Secre- 
tary of  the  U,  S.  Legation  to  Liberia,  author  of 
"Negro  Culture  in  West  Africa,"  etc.):  "From  Super- 
man to  Man  by  J.  A.  Rogers  is  a  significant  ■contribu- 
tion to  interracial  literature  in  more  ways  than  one. 
Its  breadth  of  scholastic  research,  its  selection  and 
concentration  of  matter  are  as  amazing  as  its  wealth 
of  information.  The  book  is  well  written  and  the  skill- 
ful management  of  materials  shows  not  only  the  au- 
thor's mastery  of  his  subject,  but  his  knowledge  of  the 
technique  of  the  literary  art.  In  the  program  of  the 
broadest  education  of  the  races  and  the  promotion 
of  social  concord  and  co-operation  this  volume  should 
be  in  every  library  and  home  of  the  country.  In  his 
absorbing  story  we  see  the  souls,  of  the  white  and 
darker  worlds  groping  and  struggling  toward  the  better 
day  of  peace  and  good  understanding  between  the 
races. 

New  York  Evening  Post:  "This  porter,  who  had  at- 
tended Yale,  had  travelled  extensively  and  spoke 
several  languages,  had  at  his  fingers'  end  the  argu- 
ments necessary  to  prove  that  his  race  was  not  a 
whit  inferior  to  the  Caucasian." 


From  Superman 

TO 

MAN 


BY 

J.  A.  ROGERS 


SECOND  EDITION. 


With  word  of  thanks  to  those,  who,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  have  helped  me  in  the  production  of 
this  volume,  but  especially  to  my  friend,  Hiram  H. 
Holland,  a  poet  as  yet  unknown,  but  one  who  I 
confidently  predict,  is  destined  to  make  an  endur- 
ing mark  in  American  literature. 


THE  GOODSPEED  PRESS 
711  South  Dearborn  Street       :        ;       ;       Chicago,  111. 


Copyright,  1917, 
By 

J.  A.  Rogers, 


FIRST  DAY. 


"A  moral,  sensible  and  well-bred  man 
Will  not  affront  me;  and  no  other  can." 

— COWPER. 


The  limited  was  speeding  to  California  over  the  snow- 
blanketed  prairies  of  Iowa.  On  car  Bulwer,  the  passen- 
gers had  all  retired,  and  Dixon,  the  porter,  his  duties 
finished,  sought  the  more  comfortable  warmth  of  the 
smoker,  where  he  intended  to  resume  the  reading  of  the 
book  he  had  brought  with  him — Finot's  "Race  Preju- 
dice." 

He  had  just  found  the  passage,  and  begun  to  read 
when  a  passenger  rushed  into  the  room. 

"Is  this  Boone  we  are  coming  into,  porter?"  he  de- 
manded excitedly,  and  with  a  foreign  accent,  at  the  same 
time  peering  anxiously  out  of  the  window  at  the  twink- 
ling lights  of  the  town  into  which  the  train  was  rushing. 

"No,  sir,"  reassured  Dixon,  "we'll  not  be  in  Boone  for 
twenty  minutes  yet.    This  is  Ames." 

"Thank  you,"  said  the  passenger,  relieved,  "the  por- 
ter on  my  car  has  gone  to  bed,  and  I  feared  I  would 
be  carried  beyond  my  destination." 

He  then  started  to  leave,  but  when  halfway,  turned, 
and  asked,  "May  I  ride  in  here  with  you  and  get  off 
when  we  get  there?" 

"Certainly,  sir,"  welcomed  Dixon,  cordially,  "make 
yourself  at  home.    Where  are  your  grips?" 

And  dropping  his  book  on  the  seat,  Dixon  went  for 
the  grip. 

When  Dixon  returned,  the  passenger  was  reading  the 
book. 

"Thank  you,"  he  said,  as  Dixon  placed  his  grip  in  a 
corner.  "Pardon  me,  but  I  see  you  have  been  reading 
'Race  Prejudice'?" 

5 


6 


FROM   MAN   TO. .SUPERMAN 


"Yes,  sir,  I  find  it  very  instructive." 
"I  have  read  it  myself,  but  in  French." 
"I  have  read  it  in  French,  too!" 
"Indeed,  can  you  speak  French?" 
"Oui,  Monsieur." 

"Where  did  you  learn  it,  in  New  Orleans?"  asked  the 
passenger  in  French. 

"I  began  it  in  college,  and  improved  on  it  in  France," 
responded  the  porter  in  the  same  language. 

"You  have  been  in  France?    What  part?" 

"Bordeaux." 

"Bordeaux?    How  long  were  you  there?" 

"Two  years  and  a  half." 

"What  were  you  doing,  studying?" 

"No  sir,  I  was  a  Spanish  correspondent  for  Simon  and 
Co.,  wine  merchants." 

"You  speak  Spanish,  too,  eh?  What  are  you,  Cu- 
ban?" 

"No,  American,  but  I  have  visited  Cuba.  I  learned 
Spanish  in  the  Philippines." 

"I  see  you  have  travelled  a  great  deal." 

"Yes,  somewhat.  It  seems  to  be  just  my  luck.  I  re- 
turned from  the  Philippines  in  time  to  get  a  position 
as  valet  to  a  gentleman  about  to  tour  South  America, 
becoming  six  months  later  his  private  secretary.  To- 
gether we  also  visited  the  principal  countries  of  the 
world.  The  poor  fellow  died  while  we  were  in  Bor- 
deaux, and  that  accounts  for  my  stay  there." 

"Didn't  you  like  it  in  France?" 

"Very  much,  indeed,  but  Simon  and  Co.  failed  on 
account  of  the  bad  crops  and  I  was  thrown  out  of  work. 
As  I  had  been  longing  to  see  my  native  land,  I  returned 
home." 

"I  should  think  with  your  knowledge  of  French  and 
Spanish,  you  ought  to  be  able  to  get  a  better  job  than 
this." 

"Well,  I  have  never  been  able  to  get  one  and  when 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


7 


one  has  a  family  he  must  get  the  wherewithal  to  live 
some  way." 

''But  have  you  tried  to  get  something  better?" 

am  trying  continually.  On  my  return  from 
Europe  I  advertised  for  a  position  as  French  and  Span- 
ish correspondent.  I  received  a  good  many  replies,  but  - 
when  my  prospective  employers  saw  me,  they  all  made 
various  excuses.  There  was  one  though,  who,  declaring 
he  was  broadminded,  would  have  employed  me,  but  his 
offer  was  so  small  that  I  refused  it  on  principle." 

"Too  bad  for  a  man  of  your  education.    You  said 
that  you  went  to  college?" 

*T  spent  a  semester  and  a  half  at  Yale,  then  the  war 
with  Spain  broke  out  and  I  enlisted." 

They  then  went  on  to  speak  about  railroad  life,  the 
passenger  telling  Dixon  about  an  incident  that  had  oc- 
cured  that  afternoon  between  the  porter  on  his  car  and 
a  fussy  passenger,  and  concluded  by  asking  Dixon,  if 
he  met  many  such  persons. 

"No,"  was  his  reply.  "Nearly  all  the  persons  I  meet 
on  the  road  are  very  pleasant.  I  am  sure  that  if  Bias  of 
Prilene  had  gained  his  knowledge  of  human  nature  on 
a  sleeping-car  his  verdict  would  have  been  altogether 
different.  I  never  knew  before  that  there  were  so  many 
kind,  agreeable  persons  until  I  had  this  position.  One 
meets  a  grouchy  person  at  such  rare  intervals,  that  he 
can  afford  to  be  liberal  then.  I  can  recall  an  incident 
similar  to  the  one  you  have  just  told  me :  One  day  while 
waiting  on  a  drawing-room  passenger,  I  made  a  mistake. 
This  man  who  had  got  on  the  train  with  a  grouch,  hav- 
ing previously  wrangled  with  the  train  and  the  sleep- 
ing-car conductors,  at  once  began  to  abuse  me  vocifer- 
ously in  spite  of  my  earnest  apology.  I  took  it  all  calm- 
ly, at  the  same  time  racking  my  mind  for  some  polite, 
but  effective  retort.  And  as  I  noted  the  ludicrousness 
of  his  ruffled  features  an  inspiration  came  to  me,  whereby 
I  could  bring  his  conduct  effectively  to  his  notice.  In 


8 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


the  room  vv^as  a  full-length  mirror,  made  into  the  state- 
room door.  Swinging  this  door  around,  I  brought  it 
right  in  front  of  him,  where  he  could  get  a  full  view 
of  his  distorted  features,  at  the  same  time  saying  with 
good  nature,  ''See,  sir,  the  mirror  does  you  a  strange 
injustice  today."  The  ridicule  was  too  much  for  him. 
He  stopped  immediately,  then  started  to  explode  again 
and  apparently  at  a  loss  for  words,  sat  down." 

The  two  then  began  to  exchange  experiences  of 
French  life,  reverting  soon  after  to  the  subject  of  the 
book  and  its  author. 

"Finot  has  done  a  great  service  for  humanity  in  the 
production  of  this  book,"  remarked  the  passenger,  "and 
he  well  merits  the  honor  conferred  on  him — Officer  of 
the  Legion  of  Honor." 

"He  is  called  one  of  the  makers  of  modern  France," 
added  Dixon.  "Did  you  know  that  despite  his  French 
name,  he  is  a  Pole?" 

Then,  espying  the  twinkling  lights  of  the  town,  he 
exclaimed,  "Ah,  here  we  are  coming  into  Boone  now." 

When  the  train  started  again  Dixon  returned  to  the 
smoker  and  resumed  his  reading.  But  too  tired  to  con- 
centrate his  thoughts  on  the  scientific  matter  he  closed 
the  volume,  placed  it  behind  him  in  the  hollow  formed 
by  his  back  and  the  angle  of  the  seat  and  began  to 
reflect  on  the  passage  he  had  just  read :  "The  doctrine 
of  inequality  is  emphatically  a  science  of  white  peoples, 
it  is  they  who  have  invented  it."  This  recalled  to  him 
some  of  the  many  falsities,  current  about  his  people.  He 
thought  of  how  in  nearly  all  the  large  libraries  of  the 
United  States  in  which  he  had  been  permitted  to  enter, 
he  had  found  books  advancing  all  sorts  of  theories  to 
prove  his  people  were  inferior.  Some  of  these  theories 
even  denied  them  human  origin.  He  went  on  to  reflect  on 
the  discussions  he  had  heard  on  the  cars  and  other 
places  from  time  to  time,  and  of  what  he  called,  the  heir- 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


9 


loom  ideas  that  many  persons  had  concernmg  the  differ- 
ent varieties  of  the  human  race.  These  discussions  he 
went  on  to  reflect  had  been  the  means  of  his  acquiring 
a  fund  of  knowledge  as  he  would  note  any  opinion  that 
he  thought  incorrect  and  look  it  up  in  the  works  of  the 
standard  authors.  These  facts  once  ascertained,  he 
would  keep  in  the  same  notebook.  But  at  this  juncture 
his  thoughts  were  interrupted  by  the  entrance  of  some- 
one. Looking  up,  Dixon  saw  a  man  clad  in  pajamas, 
overcoat,  and  with  slippered  feet,  enter  the  room. 

Now  Dixon  had  taken  special  notice  of  this  man  for, 
during  the  afternoon,  he  had  been  discussing  the  color 
question  with  another  passenger  in  the  smoker.  This 
man,  from  what  Dixon  could  gather,  was  a  Southern  leg- 
islator who  was  on  his  way  to  California  on  business. 

Dixon  had  had  occasion  to  go  into  the  room  several 
times.  On  one  occasion  he  had  heard  this  man  say 
vehemently,  "The  'nigger'  is  a  menace  to  our  civiliza- 
tion and  should  be  kept  down.  I  am  opposed  to  educat- 
ing him,  for  the  educated  'nigger'  is  a  misfit  in  the  white 
man's  civilization.  He  is  a  caricature  and  no  good  can 
result  from  his  'butting  in'  on  our  affairs.  A\^ould  to 
God  that  none  of  the  brood  had  ever  set  foot  on  the 
shores  of  our  country.  That's  the  proper  place  for  a 
'nigger,'  "  he  had  remarked  quite  aloud,  on  seeing  Dixon 
engaged  in  wiping  out  the  wash-bowls. 

At  another  time  he  had  heard  the  same  speaker  de- 
liver himself  of  this  opinion :  "You  may  say  what  you 
please,  but  I  would  never  eat  with  a  'nigger.'  I  couldn't 
stomach  it.  Nature  has  placed  an  insuperable  barrier 
between  black  and  white  that  will  ever  prevent  them 
from  living  on  the  same  social  plane,  at  least  so  far  as 
the  Anglo-Saxon  is  concerned.  I  have  no  hatred  for 
the  black  man,  in  fact  I  could  have  none,  but  he  MUST 
stay  in  his  place." 

"That's  nothing  else  but  racial  antipathy,"  his  oppo- 
nent had  objected. 


10 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


"Call  it  whatever  you  will,"  the  other  had  said  snappily, 
"but  there  is  an  indefinable  something  within  me  that 
tells  me  I  am  infinitely  better  than  the  best  'nigger'  that 
ever  lived.  The  feeling  is  instinctive  and  I  am  not  go- 
ing to  violate  Nature." 

Upon  hearing  this  remark,  Dixon  had  thought  as  fol- 
lows :  "My  good  man,  how  easily  I  could  define  that 
'indefinable  feeling'  of  which  you  speak.  I  notice  from 
your  positive  manner  and  impatience  of  contradiction 
that  you  experience  that  indefinable  feeling  of  superi- 
ority not  only  toward  the  Negro,  but  toward  all  human 
beings,  and  that  feeling,  you,  yourself,  would  call  in 
any  one  else  'conceit.'  " 

Dixon  had  happened  to  be  present  at  the  close  of 
the  discussion  which  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  an- 
nouncement of  dinner.  The  conversation  had  been  a 
rather  heated  one  and  closed  with  the  following  retort 
by  the  anti-Negro  passenger.  You,  too,  had  slavery  in 
•the  North,  but  it  didn't  pay  and  so  you  gave  it  up. 
Wasn't  your  pedantic  and  self-righteous  Massachu- 
setts, the  first  to  legalize  slavery?  A  matter  of  climate 
that's  all.  Climes  reversed,  it  would  have  been  the 
South  that  wanted  abolition.  It  was  a  matter  of  busi- 
ness with  you,  not  sentiment.  Those  Northerners  who 
had  an  interest  in  slavery  were  bitterly  opposed  to  abo- 
lition. It  is  all  very  well  for  you  to  talk,  but  if  you 
Northerners  had  the  same  percentage  of  'niggers'  that 
we  have,  you  would  sing  a  different  tune.  The  bitterest 
people  against  the  'nigger'  are  the  Northerners,  who  have 
come  South.  You,  too,  have  race  riots,  lynching  and  seg- 
regation. The  only  difference  between  the  South  and 
the  North  is,  that  one  is  frank  and  the  other  hypocriti- 
cal," and  he  had  added  in  apparently  sincere  tones,  "and 
I  hate  hypocrisy." 

In  spite  of  this  avowed  enmity  tovv^ard  his  people, 
Dixon  had  felt  no  animosity  toward  the  man.    Here,  he 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


11 


had  thought,  was  a  conscience,  evidently  honest,  but  un- 
educated. 

Shortly  afterwards  an  occupant  of  the  smoker  who 
had  evinced  no  interest  in  the  discussion  had  met  Dixon 
in  the  passageway  and  prefacing  his  remarks  with  a  few 
terrible,  but  good-humored  oaths,  had  said,  "That  fellow 
is  obsessed  by  the  race  problem.  I  met  him  yesterday 
at  the  hotel,  and  he  has  talked  of  hardly  anything  else 
since.  This  morning  we  were  in  the  elevator,  when  a 
well  dressed  Negro,  who  looked  like  a  professional  man, 
came  in,  and  at  once  he  began  to  tell  me  so  that  all 
could  hear  him,  something  about  'nigger'  doctors  in  Ok- 
lahoma. If  he  could  only  see  how  ridiculous  he  is  mak- 
ing himself,  he'd  shut  up." 

'T  feel  myself  as  good  as  he,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "and 
I  have  associated  with  colored  people.  We  have  a 
colored  porter  in  our  office — Joe — and  we  think  the  world 
of  him.  He  doesn't  like  'niggers'  eh?"  Then  he  had 
added,  laughingly,  and  with  a  knowing  wink,  nudging 
Dixon  in  the  ribs  at  the  same  time,  'T  wager  his  in- 
stinctive dislike,  as  he  calls  it,  doesn't  include  both  sexes 
of  your  race.    I  know  his  kind  well." 

Dixon  had  felt  like  saying,  "We  must  be  patient  with 
the  self-deluded,"  but  he  did  not.  He  had  simply  thanked 
the  speaker  for  his  kind  sentiments  then  turned  and 
walked  away. 

All  of  this  ran  through  the  porter's  mind  when  he 
saw  the  pajama-clad  passenger  appear  in  the  doorway. 
The  newcomer,  on  entering,  walked  up  to  the  mirror, 
where  he  looked  at  himself  quizzically  for  a  moment, 
then  he  selected  a  chair  and  adjusting  it  to  suit  his  fancy 
made  himself  comfortable  in  it;  next,  he  took  a  plain 
and  well-worn  cigarette  case  from  his  pocket,  selected  a 
cigarette,  and  began  rummaging  his  pockets  for  a  match, 
all  in  apparent  oblivion  to  the  presence  of  Dixon  at  the 
near  end  of  the  long,  cushioned  seat.  But  Dixon  had 
been  quietly  observing  him  and  deftly  presented  a  lighted 


12 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


match,  at  the  same  time,  venturing  to  inquire  in  a  re- 
spectful and  rather  solicitous  tone,  "Can't  sleep,  sir?" 

"No,  George,"  came  the  reply  in  an  amiable,  but  con- 
descending tone,  "I  was  awakened  at  the  last  stop  and 
can't  go  back  to  sleep.  I  never  do  very  well  the  first 
night  anyway." 

With  this  the  passenger  began  to  talk  to  Dixon 
about  the  journey.  They  soon  began  to  talk  of  more 
personal  matters.  Into  this  part  of  the  conversation  the 
passenger  injected  phrases  such  as  "your  race,"  "nig- 
gers," and  "coons." 

From  this,  the  passenger  began  to  tell  jokes  about 
chicken-stealing,  razor-fights,  and  watermelon  feasts.  Of 
such  jokes  he  evidently  had  an  abundant  stock.  Nearly 
all  of  these  Dixon  had  heard  time  and  again.  One  was 
the  anecdote  of  a  Negro  head  waiter  in  a  Northern 
hotel,  who,  when  asked  by  a  Southern  guest  if  he  was 
the  head  "nigger,"  indignantly  objected  to  the  epithet, 
but  upon  the  visitor's  informing  him  that  it  was  his  cus- 
tom to  give  a  large  tip  to  the  "head-nigger,"  this  head- 
waiter,  so  the  story  goes,  effusively  acknowledged  that 
he  was  the  "head-nigger,"  saying,  "Yassah,  boss,  I'se  de 
'head-nigger,'  and  ef  you  doan  b'leeve  me  ask  all  dem 
othah  niggahs  deh." 

The  narrator  was  laughing  immoderately,  and  Dixon, 
feeling  what  was  expected  of  him,  laughed  heartily,  too. 
Had  the  entertainer  been  a  mind  reader,  however,  he 
would  not  have  been  flattered  by  his  prowess  as  a 
comedian,  since  it  was  his  conduct,  and  not  his  wit,  that 
had  furnished  the  other's  mirth. 

While  the  passenger  was  still  laughing  the  train  be- 
gan to  slow  down,  and  Dixon,  asking  to  be  excused,  slid 
to  the  other  end  of  the  seat,  thus  exposing  the  book  he 
had  placed  behind  him.  The  passenger  saw  the  volume 
and  his  humor  was  at  once  changed  to  curiosity.  The 
book  stood  end  up  on  the  seat  and  he  could  discern  from 
its  size  and  binding  that  it  was  a  volume  that  might 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


13 


contain  serious  thought.  He  had  somehow  felt  that  this 
Negro  was  above  the  ordinary.  A  certain  forced  quality 
in  the  timbre  of  Dixon's  laughter,  as  also  a  merry  twinkle 
in  his  eye,  had  made  him  feel  just  a  bit  uncomfortable, 
and  now  he  wanted  to  verify  his  suspicion.  His  curi- 
osity getting  the  better  of  him,  he  reached  over  to  take 
the  volume,  but,  at  that  same  instant,  Dixon's  slipping 
up  again  to  his  former  seat,  caused  him  to  change  his 
mind.  Yet  he  determined  to  find  out,  and  with  an  air 
of  assumed  indifference,  and  a  condescending  smile  he 
demanded : 

''Your  book,  George?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"What  is  it  about?" 

"Oh,  only  a  scientific  work,"  said  the  other,  care- 
lessly, not  wishing  to  broach  the  subject  of  racial  differ- 
ences that  the  title  of  the  book  suggested. 

Dixon's  very  evident  desire  to  evade  a  direct 
answer  seemed  to  sharpen  the  other's  curiosity,  for  he 
suggested  oft'-handedly,  but  with  ill-concealed  eagerness, 
"Pretty  deep  stuff,  eh?"  Then  in  the  same  manner,  he 
inquired,  "Who's  the  author?" 

Dixon  noted  his  curiosity,  and  deciding  to  gratify  it, 
handed  him  the  book,  which  he  took  with  feigned  indif- 
ference. He  opened  it  near  the  beginning,  and,  moisten- 
ing his  fore-finger,  began  turning  over  the  leaves.  Now 
and  then  he  would  stop  to  read  a  marked  passage,  each 
time  muttering  half-audibly,  "Nonsense,  ridiculous!" 

After  glancing  through  the  book  the  passenger  turned 
back  to  the  frontispiece  in  a  search  for  the  author's 
name.  When  he  found  it,  he  blurted  out  Avith  ill-con- 
cealed disgust,  "Just  as  I  thought !  Written  by 
a  Frenchman,"  then,  before  he  could  recollect  to  whom 
he  was  talking — so  full  Avas  he  of  what  he  regarded  the 
absurdity  of  Finot's  view — he  again  blurted  out,  "Do 
you  believe  all  these  impossible  vicAvs  about  the  equality 
of  the  races?" 


14  FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


Now  Dixon's  policy  was  to  carefully  avoid  any  topic 
that  would  be  likely  to  produce  a  difference  of  opinion 
with  a  passenger,  provided  that  the  avoidance  did  not 
entail  any  sacrifice  of  his  self-respect.  In  this  instance, 
he  regarded  his  questioner  as  one  to  be  humored,  rather 
than  vexed,  for  just  then  the  following  remark,  made  by 
this  same  man  that  afternoon,  recurred  to  him. 

"The  Jew,  the  Frenchman,  the  Dago  and  the 
Spaniards  are  all  'niggers'  to  a  greater  or  less  extent. 
The  only  white  people  are  the  Anglo-Saxons,  Teutons 
and  Scandinavians."  This,  Dixon  surmised,  had  ac- 
counted for  the  remark  the  other  had  made  about  the 
author's  adopted  nationality,  and  it  amused  him. 

Dixon  pondered  his  question  for  a  few  moments,  then 
there  occurred  to  him  a  method  by  which  he  could  retain 
his  own  opinion,  even  while  in  apparent  accord  with  the 
views  of  the  other.    He  responded  accordingly: 

"No  sir,  I  do  not  believe  in  the  equality  of  races.  As 
you  say,  it  is  impossible." 

The  passenger  looked  up  from  the  book  as  if  he  had 
not  been  expecting  a  response,  but  seemingly  pleased 
with  Dixon's  acquiescence  continued. 

"Writers  of  this  type  don't  know  what  they  are  talk- 
ing about.  They  write  from  mere  theory.  If  they  had 
to  live  among  'niggers,'  they  would  sing  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent tune." 

Dixon  felt  that  he  ought  not  to  let  this  remark  go 
unchallenged.  He  protested  courteously:  "Yet,  sir,  M. 
Finot  has  admirably  proved  his  arguments.  I  am  sure 
if  you  were  to  read  his  book  you  would  agree  with  him, 
too." 

"Didn't  you  just  say  you  differed  with  the  views  in 
this  book?"  questioned  the  other  sharply. 

"I  fear  you  misunderstood  me,  sir." 

"Didn't  you  say  you  did  not  believe  in  the  equality 
of  races?" 

"Yes,  sin" 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


15 


"Then,  why?" 

''Because  as  vou  said,  sir,  it  is  impossible." 
"Why?  Why?" 

"Because  there  is  but  one  race — the  human  race." 

The  passenger  did  not  respond.  Although  angry  at 
the  manner  in  which  Dixon  received  and  responded  to 
his  question,  he  stopped  to  ponder  the  situation  in  which 
his  unwitting  question  had  placed  him.  As  he  had  con- 
fessed, he  did  not  like  educated  Xegroes,  and  had  had 
no  intention  of  engaging  in  a  controversy  with  one.  His 
respect  and  his  aversion  for  this  man  increased  with 
a  bound.  Xow  he  was  weighing  the  respective  merits 
of  the  two  poi-oible  courses — silence  and  response.  If 
he  remained  silent,  this  Xegro  might  think  he  had 
silenced  him,  while  to  respond  would  be  to  engage  in 
an  argument,  thus  treating  the  Negro  as  an  equal.  After 
weighing  the  matter  for  somie  time  he  decided  that,  of 
the  two  courses,  silence  was  the  less  compatible  with  his 
racial  dignity,  and  with  much  condescension,  his  stiff 
voice  and  haughty  manner  in  marked  contrast  to  his 
jollity  of  a  few  minutes  past,  he  demanded: 

"'You  say  there  is  only  one  race.  AMiat  do  you  call 
yourself?" 

"An  American  citizen,"  replied  the  other,  com- 
posedly." 

"Perhaps  you  have  never  heard  the  word  'nigger'?" 

"Yes,  sir,"  came  the  reply  in  the  same  quiet  voice. 

"Then,  do  you  believe  the  'nigger'  is  the  equal  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race?" 

"I  have  read  many  books  on  anthropology,  sir,  but  I 
have  not  seen  mention  of  either  a  'nigger'  race  or  an 
Anglo-Saxon  one." 

"'Very  well,  do  you  believe  your  race — the  black  race 
— is  the  equal  of  the  Caucasian?" 

Dixon  stopped  to  weigh  the  wisdom  of  his  answering. 
What  good  would  it  do  to  talk  with  a  man  seeming 
so  rooted  in  his  prejudices?    Then  a  simile  came  to  him. 


16 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


On  a  visit  to  the  Bureau  of  Standards  at  Washington, 
D.  C,  he  had  seen  the  effect  of  the  pressure  of  a  single 
finger  upon  a  supported  bar  of  steel  three  inches  thick. 
The  slight  strain  had  caused  the  steel  to  yield  one- 
twenty-thousandth  part  of  an  inch,  as  the  delicate  ap- 
paratus, the  interferometer,  had  registered.  Since  every 
action,  he  went  on  to  reason,  causes  a  reaction,  and  truth, 
with  the  impulse  of  the  cosmos  behind  it,  is  irresistible, 
surely  if  he  advanced  his  views  in  a  kindly  spirit,  he  must 
modify  the  error  in  this  man.  But  still  he  hesitated. 
Suddenly  he  recalled  that  this  man  was  a  legislator. 
Here  was  one  of  those,  who,  above  all  others,  ought  to 
know  the  truth.  This  thought  decided  his  course.  He 
would  answer  to  the  point,  resolving  at  the  same  time 
to  restrict  any  conversation  that  might  ensue  to  the 
topic  of  the  human  race  as  a  whole  and  to  steer  clear  of 
the  color  question  in  the  United  States.  He  responded 
with  soft  courtesy: 

*T  have  found,  sir,  that  any  division  of  humanity 
according  to  physique  can  never  have  but  a  merely  nom- 
inal value,  for  differences  in  physiques  are  caused  by 
climatic  conditions,  and  are  subject  to  a  rechange  by 
them.  For  instance,  scientists  who  have  made  a  study 
of  this  question  tell  us  that  the  Negro  and  the  Yankee 
are  both  approaching  the  Red  Indian  type.  Pigmented 
humanity  becomes  lighter  in  the  temperate  zone,  while 
unpigmented  humanity  becomes  brown  in  the  tropics. 
One  summer's  exposure  at  a  bathing  beach  is  enough  to 
make  a  life-saver  darker  than  many  Indians.  The  true 
skin  of  all  human  beings  is  of  the  same  color.  Then 
it  is  possible  by  the  blending  of  human  varieties  to 
produce  innumerable  other  varieties,  each  one  capable  of 
producing  and  continuing  itself.  Again,  anthropologists 
have  never  been  able  to  classify  human  varieties.  Hux- 
ley, as  you  know,  named  2,  Blumenbach  5,  Burke  63, 
while  others,  desiring  greater  accuracy,  have  named 
hundreds.    Since  these  classifications  are  so  vague  and 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


17 


changeable,  it  is  evident,  then,  that  any  classification  of 
humanity,  whether  by  color  of  skin,  hair  or  facial  con- 
tour, to  be  other  than  purely  nominal,  must  be  one  of 
mentality.  And  to  classify  humanity  by  intellect,  would 
be,  as  you  know,  an  impossible  task.  Nature,  so  far  as 
we  know,  made  onl}^  the  individual.  This  idea  has  been 
ably  expressed  by  Lamarck,  who,  in  speaking  of  the 
human  race;  says,  'Classifications  are  artificial,  for  na- 
ture has  created  neither  classes,  nor  orders,  nor  families, 
nor  kinds,  nor  permanent  species,  but  only  individuals.'  " 

The  passenger  handed  back  the  book  to  Dixon.  "But, 
you  have  not  answered  my  question  yet,"  he  insisted, 
"I  asked,  do  you  believe  the  black  race  will  ever  attain 
the  intellectual  standard  of  the  Caucasian?" 

'Tntellect,  whether  of  civilized  or  uncivilized  human- 
ity, as  you  know%  sir,  is  elastic  in  quality,  that  is,  the 
savage  when  transplanted  to  civilization  not  only  be- 
comes civilized,  but  sometimes  excels  some  of  those 
whose  ancestors  have  had  centuries  of  culture,  and  the 
child  of  civilized  man  when  isolated  among  savages  be- 
comes a  savage.  W^e  would  find  that  the  difference  be- 
tween a  people  who  had  acquired  say  three  or  four  gen- 
erations of  beneficent  culture,  and  another  who  had  been 
long  civilized  Avould  be  about  the  same  as  would  exist 
between  the  individuals  in  the  long  civilized  group,  that 
is,  the  usual  human  dift'erences  would  exist.  To  be  accu- 
rate we  would  have  to  appraise  each  individual  sep- 
arately. Any  comparisons  between  the  groups  would  be 
only  approximate." 

"But,"  reiterated  the  other,  sarcastically,  "you  have 
not  answered  my  question;  do  you  believe  the  black  man 
will  ever  attain  the  high  intellectual  standard  of  the 
Caucasian?" 

"For  the  most  authoritative  answer,"  responded 
Dixon,  in  the  calm  voice  of  the  disciplined  thinker,  "we 
must  look  to  Science.    If  you  don't  mind,  sir,  I  will 


18 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


give  you  some  quotations  from  scientists  of  acknowl- 
edged authority,  all  of  them  being  Caucasian." 

Dixon  took  his  note  book  from  his  vest  pocket.  He 
searched  some  time  for  the  desired  passage,  and  finding 
it,  began :  "Gustav  Spiller,  organizer  of  the  Universal 
Races  Congress,  held  in  London  in  1911,  after  weigh- 
ing this  question  of  the  inferiority  and  superiority  of 
peoples,  says,  'We  are  then  under  the  necessity  of  con- 
cluding that  an  impartial  investigator  would  be  inclined 
to  look  upon  the  various  important  peoples  of  the  world 
as  to  all  intents  and  purposes  essentially  equal  in  intel- 
lect, enterprise,  morality  and  physique.'  " 

Dixon  found  another  passage  and  commented : 
"Finot,  whose  findings  ought  to  be  regarded  as  more 
valuable  than  the  expressions  of  those  who  base  their 
arguments  on  sentiment  or  on  Hebrew  mythology,  says, 
'All  peoples  may  attain  this  distant  frontier  which  the 
brains  of  the  whites  have  reached.'  He  also  says,  'The 
conclusion,  therefore,  forces  itself  upon  us  that  there  are 
no  inferior  races  and  superior  races,  but  only  races  and 
peoples  living  outside  or  within  the  influence  of  culture. 

"  'The  appearance  of  civilization  and  its  evolution 
among  certain  white  peoples  and  within  a  certain  geo- 
graphical latitude  is  only  the  effect  of  circumstance.' 

"Zamenhof,  the  inventor  of  Esperanto,  in  his  paper 
before  the  Universal  Races  Congress,  says:  'Give  the 
Africans,  without  any  mingling  of  rancor  or  oppression,  a 
high  and  humane  civilization,  and  you  will  find  their 
mental  level  will  not  differ  from  ours.  Abolish  the  whole 
of  our  civilization  and  our  minds  will  sink  to  the  level 
of  an  African  cannibal.  It  is  not  a  difference  of  men- 
tality in  the  race,  but  a  difference  of  instruction.'  " 

Dixon  closed  his  note  book  and  said,  "The  savage 
varieties  of  mankind  are  the  equal  of  the  civilized  varie- 
ties in  this :  there  is  latent  within  them  the  same  possi- 
bilities for  development.    The  more  developed  peoples 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO   MAN  19 


have  also  the  germ  of  decay  more  or  less  actively  at 
work  within  them." 

The  passenger  had  been  awaiting  his  turn  with  impa- 
tience. Now  drawing  up  his  overcoat  over  his  pajama- 
clad  knees,  and  raising  his  voice  in  indignation,  appar- 
ently forgetting  all  previous  qualms  of  lowered  racial 
pride,  he  flung  at  Dixon,  "That's  all  nonsense.  It  is 
not  true  of  the  Negro,  for  while  the  white,  red  and  yellow 
races  have,  or  have  had,  civilizations  of  their  own,  the 
black  has  had  none.  All  he  has  ever  accomplished  has 
been  when  driven  by  the  whites.  Indigenous  to  a 
continent  of  the  greatest  natural  resources  he  has  all 
these  ages  produced  absolutely  nothing.  Geographical 
position  has  had  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  it,  or  we 
would  not  have  had  Aztec  civilization.  Tell  me,  has  the 
Negro  race  ever  produced  a  Julius  Caesar,  a  Shake- 
speare, a  Montezuma,  a  Buddha,  or  a  Confucius?  The 
Negro  and  all  the  Negroid  races  are  inherently  inferior. 
It  is  idiocy  to  say  the  Negro  is  the  equal  of  the  Cau- 
casian. God  Almighty  made  black  to  serve  white.  He 
has  placed  an  everlasting  curse  on  all  the  sons  of  Ham 
and  the  black  man  shall  always  serve  the  white."  And 
his  face  flushed  with  excitement. 

Dixon  was  apparently  unmoved.  He  responded  with 
charming  courtesy,  his  Vv^ell-modulated  voice  and  even 
tones  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  bluster  and  hysteria  of 
the  other,  /'The  belief  that  the  history  of  the  Negro 
began  with  his  slavery  in  the  New  World,  while  popular, 
is  erroneous.  The  black  man,  like  the  Aztec,  was  civil- 
ized when  the  dominant  branches  of  the  Caucasian  vari- 
ety were  savages.  Herodotus,  the  Father  of  History, 
distinctly  mentions  the  black  skins  and  woolly  hair  of 
the  Ethiopians  who  once  ruled  Egypt,  the  cradle  of  civil- 
ization. M.  C.  Volney,  the  explorer,  says,  'The  ancient 
Egyptians  were  real  Negroes  of  the  same  species  with 
the  present  natives  of  Africa.'  A  glance  at  the  Sphinx 
or  other  Egyptian  statuary  will  confirm  these  statements. 


20 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


When  I  saw  the  statute  of  Amenemphet  III,  I  was  imme- 
diately struck  by  the  facial  resemblance  to  a  well-known 
Negro  pugilist.  By  the  light  of  modern  research  it  does 
appear  as  if  white-skinned  humanity  derived  its  civiliza- 
tion from  the  black-skinned  variety.  Volney  says:  'To 
the  race  of  Negroes  .  .  .  the  object  of  our  extreme 
contempt,  we  owe  our  arts,  sciences  and  even  the  very 
use  of  speech.  .  .  .  And  with  reference  to  the  pro- 
duction of  great  men  by  the  Negro  " 

The  passenger,  who  had  been  fidgeting  in  his  chair, 
now  interrupted  testily:  "But  what  about  the  Negro's 
debased  condition  in  the  scale  of  civilization?  Look  at 
the  millions  of  Negroes  in  Africa  little  better  than 
gorillas !  They  are  still  selling  their  own  flesh  and  blood, 
eating  human  flesh  and  carrying  on  their  horrible  voo- 
doo !  All  of  the  white  race  is  civilized  and  all  the  other 
races,  to  some  extent.  Consider  the  traditions  of  the 
white  man  and  all  it  means !  Look  at  the  vast  incompre- 
hensible achievements  of  the  white  man,  the  railroads, 
the  busy  cities,  the  magnificent  edifices,  the  wireless  tele- 
graph,— yes,  consider  all  the  marvels  of  science.  What 
has  the  white  man  not  done?  Lie  has  weighed  the  atom 
and  the  star  with  perfect  accuracy.  He  has  probed  the 
uttermost  recesses  of  infinity  and  fathomed  the  darkest 
mysteries  of  the  ocean ;  he  has  challenged  the  lightning 
for  speed  and  equalled  it ;  he  has  competed  with  the  eagle 
in  the  air,  and  outstripped  him;  has  rivalled  the  fish  in 
his  native  element.  In  fact,  there  is  not  one  single  oppos- 
ing force  in  Nature  that  he  has  not  bent  to  his  adamant 
will.  He  has  often  excelled  even  the  excellence  of  Nature. 
Consider,  too,  the  philosophies,  the  religions,  the  ennob- 
ling works  of  art  and  of  literature.  Has  the  Negro  any- 
thing to  compare?  Has  he  ever  evolved  anything  else 
but  a  voodoo  worship?  Has  he  anything  at  all  to  boast 
of?  Nothing!  Absolutely  nothing!  And  yet  in  the  face 
of  all  of  these  overwhelming  facts,  things  patent  to  even 
the  most  ignorant,  you  tell  me  the  Negro  is  the  equal  of 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


21 


the  breed  of  supermen — wonder-men — I  represent.  Really 
this  childlike  credulity  of  yours  reaches  the  acme  of 
absurdity.  More  than  ever  do  I  perceive  a  Negro  is 
incapable  of  reasoning." 

And  he  caught  for  breath  as  he  lolled  back  in  the 
chair,  while  a  supreme  smile  of  satisfaction  lit  up  his 
features. 

Dixon,  v\^ho  had  been  listening  patiently,  was  seem- 
ingly unaffected,  for  he  responded  composedly :  "The 
white  man's  civilization  is  only  a  continuation  of  that 
which  was  passed  on  to  him  by  the  Negro,  who  has  sim- 
ply retrogressed.  'Civilizations,'  as  Spiller  has  pointed 
out,  'are  meteoric,  bursting  out  of  obscurity  only  to 
plunge  back  again,'  Macedonia,  for  example.  In  our  own 
day,  we  have  seen  the  decline  of  Azt@c  and  Inca  civiliza- 
tions. Of  the  early  history  of  man  we  know  nothing 
definite.  Prior  even  to  paleolithic  man  there  might  have 
been  civilizations  excelling  our  own.  In  the  heart  of 
Africa,  explorers  may  yet  unearth  marks  of  some  extinct 
Negro  civilization  in  a  manner  similar  to  the  case  of 
Assyria.  For  instance,  the  Chicago  Evening  Post  of  Oct. 
11,  1916,  speaking  editorially  of  the  recent  discoveries 
made  in  Egypt  by  Dr.  Reisner  of  Harvard,  says,  'To  his 
amazement  he  found  even  greater  treasures  of  the  Ethio- 
pian past.  Fragment  after  fragment  was  unearthed,  until 
at  last  he  had  reconstructed  effigies  of  no  less  than  ten 
monarchs  of  the  forgotten  Negro  empire.'  Moreover, 
there  has  been  a  high  form  of  modern  civilization,  as  in 
Timbuctoo  and  Abyssinia,  in  which  Negroes  have  par- 
ticipated largely;  then,  there  have  been  such  purely 
Negro  civilizations  as  that  of  Uganda  and  Songhoi,  which 
were  of  high  rank.  Boas  says  in  his  'Mind  of  Primitive 
Man'  (here  Dixon  took  out  his  note  book),  'A  survey  of 
African  tribes  exhibits  to  our  view  cultural  achievements 
of  no  mean  order.  All  the  different  kinds  of  activities 
that  we  consider  desirable  in  the  citizens  of  our  country 
may  be  found  in  aboriginal  Africa.'  " 


22 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


The  passenger  did  not  reply.  He  had  narrowed  his 
eyes,  which,  like  two  slits,  were  peering  at  Dixon  pierc- 
ingly. The  latter,  after  a  brief  pause,  returning  his  gaze, 
continued  undauntedly:  "Spiller  also  says,  'The  status 
of  a  race  at  any  particular  moment  of  time  offers  no 
index  to  its  inherent  capacities.'  How  true  has  this  been 
of  Britons,  Picts  and  Scots,  and  Huns.  Nineteen  hun- 
dred and  seventy-one  years  ago  England  was  inhabited 
by  savages,  who  stained  themselves  with  woad,  offered 
human  sacrifices,  and  even  practiced  cannibalism,  in 
some  parts  of  the  island.  Nor  is  culture  a  guarantee 
from  decay,  or  Greece  would  not  have  decayed.  You 
may  be  sure  the  Roman  had  the  same  contempt  for  the 
savages  of  the  North  who  finally  conquered  him  and 
almost  obliterated  his  civilization,  as  have  the  self-styled 
superior  peoples  of  today  for  the  less  developed  ones. 
But  these  undeveloped  peoples  should  not  be  despised. 
Nature,  it  appears,  does  not  intend  to  have  the  whole 
world  civilized  at  the  same  time.  Even  as  a  thrifty 
housewife  retains  a  balance  in  the  bank  to  meet  emer- 
gencies, so  Nature  retains  these  undeveloped  varieties  as 
a  reserve  fund  to  pay  the  toll  which  civilization  always 
exacts.  Finot  says  that  many  biologists  regard  the  Cau- 
casian as  having  arrived  at  the  limit  of  his  evolution,  and 
that  he  can  go  no  higher  without  danger  to  his  over- 
developed brain.  Undeveloped  peoples,  then,  sir,  are 
simply  Nature's  bank  account." 

The  passenger  readjusted  his  slippers  and  went  over 
to  the  water  cooler  for  a  drink.  He  did  not  like  to 
argue  in  this  abstract  vein.  Dixon's  quiet  assurance 
and  well-bred  air,  too,  surprised  him,  and  made  him 
unconsciously  admit  to  himself  that  here  was  a  Negro 
different  from  his  concept  of  that  race,  and  not  much  dif- 
ferent from  himself  after  all.  Yet  his  racial  pride  would 
not  permit  him  to  be  outwitted  by  one  whom  he  regarded 
as  an  inferior  in  spite  of  that  ''inferior's"  apparent  intel- 
ligence.   He  would  try  the  tactics  best  known  to  him — 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


23 


one  that  he  had  more  than  once  used  successfully  with 
Negroes.  He  would  outface  his  opponent,  awe  him,  as 
it  were,  by  his  racial  prestige.  With  this  determination 
he  returned  to  his  seat  and  calmly  seated  himself.  After 
a  few  leisurely  puits  of  a  freshly-lighted  cigarette  he 
turned  to  Dixon,  who  had  not  moved,  and  in  pretty 
much  the  same  tone  that  a  bullying  lawyer  would  use  to 
a  tim.id  witness,  at  the  same  time  shaking  an  extended 
forefinger  and  glaring  from  under  knitted  eyebrows,  he 
demanded : 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  you  really  believe 
the  Negro  is  the  equal  of  the  white  man?  That  you 
think  you  are  as  good  as  a  white  man?  Come  on  now, 
none  of  your  theories." 

Dixon  appeared  far  from  being  intimidated.  Indeed, 
he  was  secretly  amused.  Carefully  repressing  his  mirth, 
he  asked  with  sprightly  ingenuousness : 

'Tn  what  particular,  sir?" 

The  passenger,  it  appears,  had  not  foreseen  an  analy- 
sis of  his  question,  for  he  stammered : 

"Oh,  you  know  very  well  what  I  mean.  I  mean — 
well — well — do  you  feel  you  are  the  equal  of  a  white 
man?" 

"Your  question  has  answered  itself,"  responded 
Dixon. 

"In  what  way?" 

"Well,  sir,  if  I  could  tell  how  a  white  man  feels,  which 
I  would  have  to  do  to  make  the  comparison,  then  it 
would  mean  that  I,  a  Negro,  have  the  same  feelings  as  a 
v/hite  man." 

No  response.  Silence,  except  for  the  rumbling  of  the 
train.  After  a  short  pause  Dixon  continued,  "Since, — 
as  your  question  implies, — I  must  use  the  good  in  me 
as  a  standard  by  which  to  measure  the  good  in  a  white 
man,  I  believe  that  any  white  man,  who,  like  myself,  is 
endeavoring  to  do  the  riglit  thing,  is  as  good  a  man  as 
I.    And  more,  sir,"  he  added  in  a  tone  of  gentle  remon- 


24 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


stration.  "Your  question  has  been  most  uncompliment- 
ary to  yourself,  for,  in  asking  me  whether  I  consider 
myself  as  good  as  a  white  man,  you  are  assuming 
that  all  white  men,  irrespective  of  reputation,  are  alike." 

The  passenger  appeared  still  more  confused.  But  he 
was  determined  not  to  be  beaten.  Returning  to  the 
charge,  he  began  in  an  irritable  and  domineering  tone: 
"You  said  you  were  born  in  Alabama?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Your  father  was  a  slave,  wasn't  he?" 

"My  grandmother,  sir,"  corrected  Dixon  frankly. 

"Well,  what  I  want  to  get  at  is  this :  do  you,  the 
descendant  of  a  slave,  consider  yourself  the  social  equal 
of  the  white  man,  who  has  always  been  free,  and  who 
owned  your  people  as  chattel?"  And  he  finished 
austerely,  "Come  on,  now,  no  more  beating  around  the 
bush." 

Dixon  decided  to  accept  his  meaning.  In  a  tone  that 
implied  a  perfect  mutual  understanding,  he  began :  "Of 
course,  sir,  this  is  a  matter  that  deeply  concerns  our 
country  and  humanity,  and  so  I  feel  that  we  two  can 
speak  on  it  calmly  and  without  any  ill  feeling."  Then 
in  a  polite  and  convincing  tone,  he  explained,  "Reared, 
as  I  was,  in  a  part  of  the  South  where  a  white  skin  is 
deified  and  a  black  one  vilified,  candidly,  in  my  child- 
hood, I  did  believe  that  there  was  something  about  the 
white  man  that  made  him  superior  to  me,  but,  fortunately 
for  me,  I  have  travelled  and  read  considerably.  I  once 
worked  for  one  Mr.  Simpson,  a  lecturer,  and  while  with 
him  I  visited  the  principal  countries  of  the  world.  In 
one  English  town,  where  I  lived  six  months,  I  didn't  see 
a  dark  face.  Living  thus  exclusively  among  whites  I 
observed  that,  except  for  differences  due  entirely  to 
environment,  my  people  were  essentially  the  same  as  the 
whites.  Indeed,  what  struck  me  most  in  my  travels  was 
the  universality  of  human  nature.  European-reared 
Negroes  possessed,  so  far  as  I  could  discern,  the  same 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


25 


temperament,  class  for  class,  as  the  whites.  Then  my 
position  on  these  cars  has  given  me  a  rare  opportunity 
for  continued  observation.  I  have  met  white  persons  in 
all  kinds  of  relationships,  and  if  there  is  any  inherent 
difference  between  Xegro  and  Caucasian,  I  have  failed 
to  find  it,  after  sixteen  years  of  rather  careful  observa- 
tion. It  is  needless  to  say  that  my  ideas  of  a  superiority 
based  on  lack  of  pigment  or  texture  of  hair  evaporated 
long  ago." 

This  reply  seemed  to  nettle  the  passenger  still  more, 
for  he  demanded  with  increased  irritation,  '''But  what 
about  slavery?  The  Negro  has  been  a  slave  since  the 
dawn  of  history.  Consult  any  dictionary  of  synonyms, 
and  you  will  see  the  term  'Negro'  is  S3'nonymous  with 
'slave.'  A  black  skin  has  ever  been  a  livery  of  servitude. 
Isn't  this  world-old  slavery  a  sign  of  the  Negro's  hope- 
less inferiority?    ^ly  father  owned  hundreds  of  slaves." 

Dixon  noticed  the  passenger's  increased  agita- 
tion and  determined  to  be  calmer  than  ever,  replied 
with  a  blandness  that  exasperated  the  other  still  more: 
"Strange  as  it  may  sound,  sir,  the  Caucasian  has  never 
been  really  free.  The  vast  majority  of  its  members  are, 
today,  industrially,  the  serfs,  and  mentally,  the  slaves, 
of  the  few.  But,  if  we  accept  the  term  literally,  all  or 
nearly  all  branches  of  the  white  variety  of  mankind  have 
been  slaves  that  could  be  bought  and  sold.  Britons  were 
slaves  to  the  Romans.  Cicero,  writing  to  his  friend, 
Atticus,  said,  'The  stupidest  and  ugliest  slaA^es  come  from 
Britain.^  Palgrave,  the  English  historian,  says  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  period,  'The  Theowe  was  entirely  the  prop- 
erty of  his  master,  body  as  Avell  as  labor;  like  the  Negro, 
he  was  part  of  the  live  stock,  ranking  in  use  and  value 
with  the  beasts  of  the  plough.'  Villeinage  persisted  in 
England  until  the  nineteenth  century.  Certain  classes 
of  Anglo-Saxon  slaves  were  not  even  permitted  to  buy 
their  freedom,  since  it  w^as  contended  that  their  all  was 
the  property  of  their  masters.    Serfdom  was  not  abol- 


26  FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 

ished  in  Prussia  until  1807,  and  in  Austria  until  1848. 
Even  here  in  America  white  persons  were  slaves.  There 
were  Irish  slaves  in  New  England." 

"Irish  slaves  in  New  England?"  echoed  the  other  in 
scornful  surprise. 

"Yes,"  resumed  Dixon,  "Irish  men  and  women  were 
slaves  in  New  England,  being  sold  like  black  slaves  and 
treated  not  a  whit  better.  .  .  .  Many  of  the  most  socially 
prominent  in  America  have  slave  ancestors ;  for  instance, 
according  to  Professor  Cigrand,  Grover  Cleveland's 
great-grandfather,  Richard  Falley,  was  an  Irish  slave  in 
Connecticut.  There  were  also  white  slaves  in  Virginia. 
Black  and  white  slaves  used  to  work  together  in  the 
fields  in  Barbadoes.  Indeed,  it  would  be  quite  possible 
to  find  white  persons  living  in  this  country  who  were 
born  in  a  condition  just  one  remove  from  actual  slavery, 
such  having  come  from  Russia,  where  serfdom  was  abol- 
ished in  1863.  Hence  you  see,  sir,  the  white  man  has  no 
special  advantage  over  the  black  in  the  matter  of  slav- 
ery." Dixon  paused  a  moment,  then  added :  "But  I 
should  think  that  the  stigma  attached  to  slavery  would 
be  more  justly  placed  on  the  descendants  of  slaveholders 
than  on  the  offspring  of  slaves.  Is  it  not  the  kidnapper, 
and  not  the  kidnapped,  who  is  the  odious  one?  With  all 
deference  to  your  parentage,  my  opinion  is  that  slave- 
holders were  parasites  of  the  most  vicious  kind." 

The  passenger  seemed  much  perturbed.  He  arose, 
paced  the  smoker  twice,  then  resumed  his  seat.  After 
a  few  moments  of  reflection  he  insisted : 

"But  the  Negro,  himself,  acknowledges  his  racial  infe- 
riority. Just  look  how  he  bleaches  his  skin,  straightens 
his  hair,  and  uses  other  devices  to  appear  like  the  white 
man!  Isn't  that  a  sign  of  inferiority?  Imitation  is 
acknowledgment  of  superiority.  Do  you  see  any  other 
race  thus  imitating  the  looks  of  the  white  man?  I  can't 
imagine  a  more  comical  sight  than  a  Negro  dandy  with 
his  hair  all  ironed  out  until  it  looks  like  the  quills  upon 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


27 


the  fretful  porcupine.  Imagine  a  Avhite  man  darkening 
himself  to  look  like  a  Negro !"  Then  he  added,  sneer- 
ingly,  ''The  Negro  is  ashamed  of  himself.  If  he  believes 
himself  the  equal  of  the  white  man,  his  actions  certainly 
do  not  show  it." 

Dixon  started.  He  had  never  looked  at  this  matter 
in  this  light  before,,  so  he  pondered  his  reply. 

The  passenger  noted  his  silence  with  a  smile  of  sat- 
isfaction. 

Dixon  now  found  his  response. 

"Yes,  these  Negroes  who  'doctor'  themselves  to  ap- 
pear white  would  appear  to  acknowledge  inferiority.  I 
have  always  held  that  one's  hair  or  color  of  skin  is  as 
perfect  as  nature  can  make  them,  so  perfect  that  to  tam- 
per with  either  is  the  surest  Avay  of  spoiling  them  even- 
tually." 

"So  much  the  worse  for  him,  then,"  retorted  the  pass- 
enger, sarcastically,  "that  he  should  try  to  ape  a  race 
below  him.  He  is  just  inferior,  that's  all,  and  the  best 
proof  is  that  he  acknowledges  it  himself.  V\Tien  a  man 
acknowledges  his  faults,  don't  you  believe  him?" 

"Indeed,  sir,"  retorted  Dixon,  "'it  is  clearly  the  fault 
of  the  average  white  that  these  so-called  Negroes  should 
try  to  be  other  than  they  are.  In  a  country  where  a 
drop  of  Negro  blood,  more  or  less  visible,  and  a  'kink,' 
more  or  less  pronounced,  in  the  hair,  may  altogether 
change  the  current  of  one's  life,  what  can  you  expect?" 

Dixon  paused  an  instant,  then  continued:  "I  will 
give  you  an  instance.  Two  brothers,  intimately  known 
to  me,  arrived  in  New  York  from  abroad.  The  hair  of 
one  brother  did  not  indicate  Ne^ro  extraction,  that  of 
the  other  did.  The  silky-haired  one  obtained  a  position 
commensurate  with  his  ability.  Incidentally,  he  went 
South  and  married  a  white  woman.  The  other,  the  bet- 
ter educated  and  more  gentlemanly  of  the  two,  too 
manly  for  subterfuge,  after  fruitless  endeavor,  had  to 


28 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


take  a  porter's  job.  He  finally  went  back  home  in  dis- 
gust.'' 

Dixon  added  reflectively,  "Also  do  not  forget  that  if 
certain  Negroes  iron  their  curly  hair,  to  make  it  straight, 
certain  whites  also  iron  their  straight  hair  to  make  it 
curly.  The  whites,  also,  by  bleaching  their  complexion 
and  hair,  wearing  false  hair,  and  the  like,  make  a  false 
show  too." 

The  passenger  shifted  in  his  seat  uncomfortably. 
After  a  few  moments  he  responded,  a  shade  less  con- 
fidently and  somewhat  more  quietly,  "What  about  this, 
then :  the  Negro  shows  no  originality,  not  even  so  far 
as  contemptuous  epithets  are  concerned.  The  white  man 
calls  the  Negro  'nigger'  and  yet  the  Negro  accepts  it 
even  to  the  length  of  calling  himself  so.  Fancy  a  white 
man  calling  himself  by  a  name  given  to  him  by  Negroes ! 
The  Negro  is  a  mimic.  He  has  the  same  amount  of  rea- 
soning power  as  a  poll  parrot." 

"I  am  sorry  to  say,  sir,"  admitted  Dixon,  "that  a 
great  number  of  uneducated  Negroes,  also  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  those  with  mere  book-learning,  do  act  in  a  manner 
to  warrant  your  statement.  The  habit  that  far  too  many 
Negroes  have  of  applying  to  themselves  those  objection- 
able epithets  bestowed  upon  them  by  their  white  con- 
temners can  not  be  too  strongly  condemned.  And  yet 
the  surest  way  of  nullifying  a  nickname  is  to  call  your- 
self by  it.  Anyway,  I  have  been  to  South  America  and 
the  Negroes  there  would  never  think  of  addressing  them- 
selves thus.  Indeed,  even  a  full-blooded  Brazilian  Negro 
feels  insulted  if  called  a  Negro.  He  wishes  to  be  known 
solely  by  his  national  patronymic." 

"Well,  how  can  you  account  for  that?"  demanded  the 
passenger,  curiously,  off  his  guard  for  the  moment. 

"In  Brazil,"  explained  Dixon,  "where  slavery  existed 
as  late  as  1888,  the  Negro  is  taught  not  only  to  regard 
himself  the  equal  of  the  white  man,  but  he  is  given  an 
opportunity  to  prove  it.    There  is  no  walk  of  Brazilian 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO    21  AN 


29 


life,  official  or  unofficial,  where  he  is  not  welcome  and  to 
which  he  has  not  aspired.  I  have  been  credibly  informed 
that  more  than  one  Brazilian  president  has  had  Negro 
blood  in  his  veins.  In  the  United  States,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  does  appear  as  if  everything  possible  is  done  to 
humble  the  so-called  Xegro — to  suppress  his  self-respect. 
There  ought  to  be  small  wonder,  then,  if  many  Xegroes 
do  not  show  sufficient  manly  dignity,  and  many  others, 
without  weighing  the  purport,  try  to  appear  white,  an 
act  Avhich,  after  all,  is  just  about  as  much  an  admission 
of  inferiority  as  when  a  white  man  blisters  himself  in 
the  sun  in  an  endeavor  to  appear,  no  doubt,  like  the 
bronzed  heroes  of  the  story  books." 

The  passenger  did  not  respond.  He  appeared  to  be 
busily  engaged  in  studying  the  inlaid  woodwork.  Dixon 
then  added  with  assumed  gravity : 

'T  must  concede,  however,  sir,  that  the  average  Negro 
acknowledges  his  inferiority  tacitly  and  often  b}^  speech." 

The  passenger  straightened  up  instantly.  He  smiled 
triumphantly,  and  replied  with  an  air  of  finality,  "'Well, 
that  settles  the  argument.  I  knew  you  would  finally 
come  to  the  truth." 

''But,  in  this  instance,"  Dixon  queried,  archly,  ''might 
not  an  acknowledgment  of  inferiority  prove  a  certain 
superiority?" 

"Inferiority  proving  superiority?  What  are  you  say- 
ing, anyway?" 

"Doesn't  the  case  of  the  sexes  explain  this  seeming 
paradox?  The  average  male  human,  as  you  will  admit, 
is  egotistic.  The  more  that  woman,  the  weaker,  humors 
this  trait,  the  better  she  serves  her  OAvn  interest;  simi- 
larly, the  average  white  man's  weak  point  is  his  color 
egotism,  and  the  more  the  Negro  humors  this  failing,  the 
more  he  serves  his  own  interest.  The  greater  the  self- 
interest  of  woman  the  more  credulous  she  is  to  tales  of 
masculine  prowess ;  the  greater  the  self-interest  of  the 
Negro  the  more  he  flatters  the  white  man's  egotism. 


30 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


Now,  sir,  which  is  cleverer,  the  fooled  or  the  one  who 
fools?" 

The  other  did  not  reply. 

Dixon  continued :  'T'U  give  you  an  illustration.  A 
friend  of  mine,  a  doctor,  told  me  he  was  one  day  in  a  bar- 
room in  Chicago  when  a  man  whom  he  instantly  recog- 
nized as  a  Southerner,  by  his  dress  and  manner,  entered. 
Lounging  in  a  corner  was  a  Negro,  one  of  those  human 
beings  who  elect  to  live  by  their  wits.  No  sooner  had 
the  Southerner  ordered  his  drink  that  the  Negro  walked 
up  and,  looking  at  him  admiringly,  effused,  'What  a 
pretty  white  man !  Say,  boss,  yo'  is  from  Missourah, 
ain't  yo'?' 

"  *Yes,'  confirmed  the  other,  much  flattered  at  this 
open  admiration,  'and  wheh  ah  yo'  from?' 

"  'Ah,  boss,  how  can  yo'  ask  me  dat?'  said  the  Negro 
in  mock  indignation,  eagerly  eyeing  the  white  man's 
glass.  Then  he  wheedled,  'Say,  boss,  I'll  have  a  "gin  an' 
rass,"  too'  (raspberry  wine  and  gin,  a  favorite  drink 
among"  certain  classes  in  Missouri).  The  Negro  had  the 
drink,  and  the  white  man  in  paying  pulled  out  a  large 
roll  of  bills.  The  sight  of  so  much  money  fired  the 
Negro's  eloquence.  He  redoubled  his  flatteries,  telling 
his  host  how  the  Northern  'niggers'  were  'biggity'  and 
how  they  thought  themselves  as  good  as  white  folks,  and 
when  he  had  his  victim  flattered  to  the  seventh  heaven  of 
delight,  he  sprang  a  hard  luck  story.  The  result  was 
several  more  'gin-rasses'  and  a  dollar." 

Dixon  related  the  incident  in  a  breezy  manner,  but 
the  passenger  failed  to  see  any  humor  in  it. 

"From  what  you  say,"  he  objected  coldly,  "the  white 
man  must  have  been  very  ignorant.  And  then  might 
not  a  Negro  permit  himself  to  be  thus  similarly  flattered 
by  a  white  man?" 

"Possibly.  But  this  story,  and  similar  ones  I  could 
tell  you,  prove  that  acknowledgment  of  inferiority 
pften  means  self-interest.   The  case  of  Booker  T.  Wash- 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


31 


ington,  however,  provides  a  better  example.  Washing- 
ton got  along  Avell  in  the  South  because  he  knew  just 
how  to  tickle  the  color  vanity  of  the  whites.  Had  he 
shown  the  independent  spirit  of  DuBois,  he  would  not 
have  done  so  well  in  the  South.  But  I  am  opposed  to 
this  policy  of  trying  to  gain  by  subterfuge  or  blandish- 
ment, that  which  is  one's  divine  right." 

Silence  for  a  few  moments.  The  passenger  appeared 
to  be  thinking  deeply.  Then  he  asked,  "But  how  are 
you  going  to  account  for  this?  The  Negro  thinks  him- 
self superior  to  other  Negroes  in  proportion  to  his 
amount  of  Caucasian  blood.  Isn't  that  an  instinctive 
acknowledgment  of  inferiority?" 

'Tt  is  true,"  conceded  Dixon,  ''that  many  lighter- 
skinned  Negroes  do  look  down  on  their  darker  brothers. 
Many  others  shun  them,  too,  from  economic  necessity; 
that  is,  they  can  earn  more  by  passing  for  w^hite.  But, 
in  the  first  instance,  can't  w^e  find  a  similar  thing  amongst 
the  whites?  Mark  you,  I  am  not  defending  this  inexcus- 
able ignorance  among  so-called  Negroes.  I  have  ahvays 
held  that  the  man  who  protests  against  a  thing  should  be 
the  last  man  to  practice  it.  In  United  States  a  premium 
is  set  upon  Caucasian  blood  (of  course,  I  use  the  term  fig- 
uratively), hence,  some  mixed  bloods  believe  themselves 
of  superior  mold.  In  the  United  States,  for  the  lack  of 
a  nobility,  a  premium  is  also  set  upon  ]\Iayflower  descent, 
and  many  persons  so  descended  pride  themselves  upon 
their  superiority  due  to  ancestry — blue-bloods,  F.  F.  V.'s 
yea,  even  from  the  dark-skinned  Pocahontas.  And  the 
analogy  we  might  draw  from  Europe  and  her  nobility  is 
too  evident  to  need  further  comment.  Then  it  must  be 
remembered  that  there  is  considerable  rivalry  between 
the  brunettes  and  the  blondes.  I  have  often  heard  rather 
heated  arguments  between  white  women  of  these  types 
as  to  their  respective  merits.  Blondes,  having  the  lesser 
amount  of  pigment,  are  deemed  the  more  virtuous,  which, 


32 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


perhaps,  accounts  for  the  larger  number  of  chemical 
blondes  among  the  whites. 

"But  those  among  us  who  have  an  infusion  of  Cau- 
casian blood  have  nothing  to  boast  of  since  such  are  in 
the  position  of  children  who  have  been  abandoned  by 
one  of  their  parents.  Then,  too,  whenever  such  are  dis- 
covered among  the  whites  they  are  nearly  always  uncere- 
moniously thrust  out.  In  my  opinion  the  Negro  who 
plumes  himself  upon  his  white  descent  simply  does  not 
think." 

The  bell  had  begun  to  ring  just  as  Dixon  was  finish- 
ing; and  he  went  in  to  answer  the  call.  He  was  very 
glad  of  the  interruption  and  remained  away,  hoping 
thereby  to  break  off  the  argument.  But  the  traveller,  it 
appears,  had  no  such  intention,  for,  when  Dixon,  ten 
minutes  later,  had  occasion  to  re-enter  the  room,  he  was 
immediately  assailed  with: 

''There  is  another  important  point  of  Negro  inferior- 
ity. The  features  of  the  Caucasian  are  more  pleasing, 
not  only  to  the  Caucasian,  but  to  the  Negroes,  judging 
from  their  own  comments.  No  one  would  ever  think  of 
comparing  the  physiognomy  of  a  Negro  with  that  of  an 
Adonis  or  an  Aphrodite.  The  white  man's  native  sense 
of  beauty  will  never  permit  him  to  modify  his  ideals  of 
beauty."  He  paused,  then  added  with  conviction :  "The 
Negro's  physiognomy  will  ever  make  him  unpleasing  to 
the  white  man." 

Dixon  thought  of  telling  him  that  this  matter  of 
physiognomy  was  the  cause  of  all  the  trouble,  but  replied, 
instead:  "The  features  of  the  Caucasian  are,  as  a  rule, 
more  pleasing  only  to  his  own  eye,  for  each  human  vari- 
ety, except  when  imbued  with  the  thoughts  of  another 
people,  as  the  Negro  in  the  New  World,  considers  its 
facial  casts  the  standard.  Darwin,  in  his  'Descent  of 
Man,'  says  that  when  the  Negro  boys  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  Africa  saw  Burton,  the  explorer,  they  cried  out, 
'Look  at  the  white  man!    Does  he  not  look  like  a  white 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


33 


ape?'  Winwood  Reade  said  that  the  Negroes  on  the 
Western  coast  admired  a  very  black  skin  more  than  one 
of  a  lighter  tint.  Agbebi,  a  A\'est  African  scientist,  says, 
in  his  paper  before  the  Races  Congress  (here  Dixon  con- 
sulted his  note  book)  :  'The  unsophisticated  African 
entertains  an  aversion  to  white  people,  and  when  on  acci- 
dentally or  unexpectedly  meeting  a  white  man,  he  turns 
or  takes  to  his  heels,  it  is  because  he  feels  that  he  has 
come  upon  some  unusual  or  unearthly  creature,  some 
hobgoblin  or  ghost  or  sprite,  and  that  an  aquiline  nose, 
scant  lips  and  cat-like  eyes  afflict  him/ 

''Dan  Crawford,  the  famous  African  missionary,  tells 
of  an  instance  where  a  number  of  Negresses  in  Central 
Africa,  on  seeing  a  white  man  for  the  first  time,  nearly 
broke  down  a  doorway  in  their  frantic  haste  to  escape. 
The  Yoruba  word  for  white  man  is  not  complimentar}^ 
It  means  'peeled  man.'  Stanley,  the  explorer,  said  that 
when  he  returned  from  the  wilds  of  Africa,  accustomed 
to  the  rich  brown  of  the  African,  he  found  the  complex- 
ions of  Europeans  ghastly." 

The  brakeman,  passing  by,  peered  into  the  room,  but 
only  greeted  Dixon  and  went  on. 

When  he  was  gone  Dixon  continued:  "Oriental  ideas 
of  beauty  are  also  different  from  ours.  The  Japanese  do 
not  like  the  noses  and  eyes  of  the  Caucasian,  which  hap- 
pen to  be  the  very  parts  of  Japanese  physiognomy  the 
Caucasian  likes  least.  Xow,  as  \"on  Luschan  asks,  'AA'hich 
of  these  races  is  right,  since  both  are  highly  artistic?'" 

"But,"  protested  the  passenger,  rather  lamely,  "since 
the  white  race  is  the  superi — most  developed  one — its 
standard  of  beauty  ought  to  be  accepted  as  the  universal 
one." 

Dixon  noted  with  satisfaction  the  other's  hesitption 
at  the  word  "superior."    He  responded : 

"Environment  is  largely  responsible  for  facial  con- 
tour. Peoples  subjected  to  the  beneficial  influences  of 
Science  and  Art  have,  according  to  the  standard  of  civil- 


34  FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


ized  man,  more  refined  features  and  are  consequently 
more  beautiful  than  savages. 

"But  facial  beauty  is  only  one  side  of  the  story.  Venus 
and  Apollo,  as  you  will  remember,  are  as  famous  for 
their  beauty  of  bodily  outline  as  for  their  facial  contour, 
perhaps  more  so.  And  in  a  matter  of  bodily  beauty  cer- 
tain savage  tribes  easily  excel  the  white  man.  The 
Zulu,  a  black  people,  are  the  successors  of  the  ancient 
Greeks  in  beauty  of  physique.  J.  H.  Balmer,  explorer 
and  lecturer,  says :  ''The  Zulus  are  the  physical  supe- 
riors of  other  races.  A  male  Zulu  has  the  strength, 
endurance  and  body  of  a  prize  fighter  in  the  pink  of 
condition.  Their  shoulders  are  broad,  their  chests  deep, 
their  waists  slim.  Their  women  are  the  strongest  females 
propagated." 

''But  here  in  America,"  resumed  Dixon,  "it  is  not  a 
matter  of  facial  contour  or  physique.  It  is  rather  a  ques- 
tion, sometimes  of  color,  sometimes  of  texture  of  hair, 
sometimes  both,  since  there  are  many  Negroes  who  pos- 
sess the  regular  profile  of  the  conventional  Caucasian, 
whilst  there  are  many  Caucasians  who,  but  for  color  and 
hair,  might  be  representatives  of  any  other  human  vari- 
ety, except  the  true  Mongolian.  I  have  remarked  many 
Swedish  and  Irish  persons  with  negroid  features.  Then, 
too,  the  beauty  of  colored  women  commands  considera- 
tion. In  all  those  parts  of  the  British  Empire  where 
black  and  white  live,  those  women  who  have  what  is 
known  as  a  touch  of  the  tar-brush  easily  excel  the  aver- 
age white  woman  in  point  of  beauty  and  grace  of  expres- 
sion. The  white  women  of  these  countries  are  mostly 
English,  and  the  Englishwoman,  generally  speaking,  is 
not  considered  beautiful.  And  even  here  in  America 
where  the  blending  of  the  various  peoples  and  the  supe- 
rior economic  conditions  have  combined  to  produce 
types,  perhaps  of  world-excelling  beauty,  certain  types 
of  colored  women  are  the  peers  of  any.  The  bewitching 
languor  of  form  and  voice,  the  placid  depth  of  the  soft, 


FROM    SUPERTAX    TO  MAX 


35 


sparkling  eye,  and  flaAvless  texture  of  skin,  combine  with 
a  disposition  of  artless  amiability  to  make  a  charm 
that  must  move  the  hearts  of  all  who  venture  to  behold 
her.  But  I  consider  this  question  of  facial  beauty 
a  wearisome  one.  The  ultimate  question  must  be  one  of 
the  mental  and  moral  worth  of  the  individual.  2\Ieas- 
ured  by  the  Greek  standard  of  facial  contour,  Soc- 
rates, Herbert  Spencer,  and  Darwin  were  very  ugly, 
and  yet  the  services  they  rendered  to  humanity  are  almost 
inestimable.  Whilst  ideas  of  beauty  are  purely  individual, 
the  standard  of  nobility  of  soul  is  universal.  Character, 
then,  should  be  the  standard  by  which  to  judge  human 
beings.  After  all,  man  is  not  like  cattle  which  we  rear 
for  appearance  sake.  I  think  that  any  face  lit  up  by 
right  living  and  high  ideals  is  beautiful  regardless  of 
contour." 

The  passenger  seemed  agitated.  He  got  up  and  again 
paced  the  room.  After  a  few  turns  he  sat  down  and 
drew  deep  inhalations  from  his  cigarette,  blowing  out 
the  smoke  very  slowly.  He  was  marshalling  in  his  mind 
all  the  many  points  regarding  Negro  inferiority.  Sud- 
denly, as  if  struck  by  an  inspiration,  he  said,  triumph- 
antly, 'T  can  positively  prove  the  Negro  is  inherently 
inferior.  The  Jews  were  slaves  for  four  hundred  and 
thirty  years,  one  hundred  and  eighty  years  longer  than 
were  the  Negroes  in  America.  Did  they  emerge  in  the 
debased  condition  of  the  Negro?  Why?  You  also  said 
the  Irish  were  slaves  in  New  England,  didn't  you?  Well, 
today  these  former  slaves  dominate  the  United  States 
politically.  Here's  where  the  inferiority  com.es  in.  There 
are  ten  millions  of  Negroes  in  the  United  States  —  a 
greater  number  than  the  population  of  Canada,  greater 
than  the  combined  population  of  Holland  and  Switzer- 
land— and  yet  there  is  not  a  single  Negro  in  any  posi- 
tion of  political  im.portance  in  this  country.  A  few,  it 
is  true,  hold  federal  positions — mostly  unimportant,  how- 


36 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


ever.  If  the  Negro  were  not  an  inferior  would  he  allow 
himself  to  be  thus  outclassed?" 

"That  isn't  due  to  inferiority  of  human  variety,  but 
to  inferiority  of  numbers." 

"To  inter-racial  jealousy,  you  mean ;  the  surest  sign 
of  a  consciousness  of  inferiority  among  any  people.  Race 
prejudice  only  hurts  those  who  have  a  consciousness  of 
their  racial  inferiority.  The  Negro  can't  trust  himself. 
He  hates  to  associate  with  his  own  people." 

"With  regard  to  this  matter  of  unity  among  my  peo- 
ple," responded  Dixon,  "the  first  point  to  be  considered 
is:  shall  we  have  Negroes  or  shall  we  have  Americans? 
We  can't  have  both.  The  closer  certain  nationalities 
in  our  population  get  together  the  further  they  drift  from 
what  ought  to  be  the  predominating  idea — the  general 
welfare  of  the  State.  I  think  that  the  aim  of  the  so-called 
Negro  should  be  national,  not  segregated  unity,  provided, 
of  course,  that  the  white  man  will  permit  him.  Why 
should  a  certain  class  of  citizens  band  themselves  in  a 
separate  camp,  patronizing  only  themselves,  working 
only  among  themselves,  and  so  on?  Let  us  suppose  that 
the  Negroes,  the  Jews,  the  Irish,  the  Mayflower  descend- 
ants, and  so  on,  form  themselves  into  their  respective 
camps,  patronizing  only  themselves.  Wouldn't  it  make 
for  narrowness,  not  to  say  national  disharmony?  None 
of  the  nationalities  that  come  here  are  forced  to  segre- 
gate themselves — indeed,  they  are  upbraided  when  they 
do  so,  as  listen  to  the  fuss  about  the  German-American. 
Another  point :  a  too  close  Negro  unity  makes  for  segre- 
gation. And  with  regard  to  Negroes  not  acting  more  in 
unity,  the  truth  is  you  can  never  get  any  group  of  human 
beings  to  think  alike,  not  even  to  act  alike,  even  when 
their  most  vital  interests  are  concerned.  Didn't  the 
Welsh  colliers  strike,  and  the  English  labor  unions  ham- 
per the  government  just  when  unity  was  most  needed? 
Again,  in  California  a  great  racket  is  made  about  the  Jap- 
anese, yet  isn't  it  the  whites  who  are  their  main  sup- 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


Z7 


port?  The  Gentile  has  complained  for  centuries  about 
the  JcAV,  yet  doesn't  he  go  on  dealing-  with  him  just  che 
same?  And  there  are  even  those  Negroes  who  defend 
the  Caucasian  in  his  treatment  of  their  people.  Among 
my  people  I  notice  that  those  who  preach  what  they  call 
racial  unity  do  not  practice  it  when  it  affects  their  pock- 
ets. Just  as  long  as  the  so-called  Negro  has  the  same 
ideals  and  ideas  as  the  Avhites,  is  as  easily  pacified,  and 
remxains  as  credulous  as  he  is,  I  do  not  think  that  he 
will  be  more  united  than  at  present.  On  the  other  hand, 
I  think  there  are  three  reasons  Avhy  the  Negro  should 
spend  his  money  among  his  own  people ;  first,  a  matter 
of  personal  pride,  for  the  majority  of  the  white  persons 
whom  he  patronizes  really  despise  him  in  their  hearts ; 
second,  his  is  a  struggling  people,  and  needs  support; 
and  third,  since  he  is  forced  to  work  for  the  whites  for 
smaller  than  the  usual  wage,  he  should  not  spend  it  Avith 
them  at  the  normal  rate.  Moreover,  you  must  not  for- 
get that  the  principal  supporters  of  Negro  business  are 
Negroes." 

The  passenger  drew  his  overcoat  closer  around  him- 
self. 

Dixon  noticed  his  motion,  and  inquired  if  he  were 
cold. 

"Somewhat,"  Avas  the  response. 

Dixon  reached  under  his  seat  and  turned  on  the 
steam. 

A  few  minutes  later  when  the  steam  was  crackling 
in  the  pipes  the  passenger  remarked : 

"The  Negro  is  a  whiner.  He  is  always  whining,  whin- 
ing for  his  rights.  The  Negro  would  do  better  by  not 
protesting  so  much." 

"Sir,"  responded  Dixon,  "it's  very  evident  that  since 
the  Negro's  disparity  in  numbers  and  wealth  makes  it 
impossible  for  him  to  fight  for  his  rights  protest  is  his 
only  weapon." 


38  FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


"But,  he  loses  valuable  time  in  protesting.  Time  that 
could  be  employed  in  bettering  himself." 

"Here's  at  least  one  instance,"  retorted  Dixon,  "in 
which  silence  would  give  consent.  If  the  Negro  said 
nothing  it  would  be  taken  for  granted  that  he  is  content. 
I  consider  it  the  duty  of  those  who  see  injustice  to  pro- 
test against  it.  Did  not  Christ  denounce  the  hypocrisy 
of  the  Pharisees  with  all  the  might  of  His  soul?  Did 
not  the  colonists  protest  against  the  tyranny  of  King 
George  in  spite  of  the  time  it  would  consume?  When 
the  Jews  were  rebuilding  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  on  their 
return  from  Babylonian  captivity  did  they  not  build, 
sword  in  one  hand,  and  trowel  in  the  other?  Then  con- 
sider this :  at  school  the  spirit  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence is  instilled  into  our  minds.  We  are  taught  to 
admire  the  indomitable  spirit  of  men  like  Julius  Caesar, 
William  Tell,  Patrick  Henry  and  Washington,  in  short, 
the  noblest  ideals  of  the  white  man  are  impressed  upon 
us,  and  then  we  are  expected  to  live  craven-hearted,  sub- 
mitting tamely  to  insult  and  to  a  gross  deprivation  of  our 
rights  as  citizens.  Has  taxation  without  representation 
ceased  to  be  tyranny?  But  this  objection  to  our  protest- 
ing is  a  hopeful  sign.  It  shows  that  conscience  is  at 
work." 

Dixon  reflected  an  instant,  then  continued :  "A  similar 
number  of  whites  would  undoubtedly  take  more  active 
measures  to  gain  their  rights,  but  the  Negro,  not  much 
educated  and  without  efficient  organization,  is  helpless 
and  has  to  plead  for  that  which  he  might  demand  were 
he  united.  He  represents  not  less  than  one-ninth  of  the 
total  population,  yet,  as  you  say,  there  is  not  a  single  one 
in  the  higher  councils  of  the  nation.  The  truth  is  that 
he  lacks  that  spirit  of  give  and  take  so  often  found  among 
oppressed  peoples — as  the  Bohemians,  for  example." 

"And  then  all  the  other  nationalities  get  ahead  of  the 
Negro,"  commented  the  passenger.  "Look  at  the  Ital- 
ian, the  Polack  and  all  the  others." 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


39 


"Your  analogy  is  not  fair,"  protested  Dixon. 
"Can't  see  why." 

"These  peoples  are  all  white,"  explained  Dixon,  "and, 
however  hard  the  first  generation  may  experience  it,,  the 
second  one  or  so  blends  with  the  rest  of  the  whites.  The 
Negro,  however,  is  always  regarded  as  a  separate  entity. 
Another  point,  sir ;  the  immigrant  not  only  gets  ahead  of 
the  Xegro,  but  of  the  native  whites.  Just  look  at  the 
signs  along  any  business  street  or  in  a  business  directory 
and  see  how  very  few  real  American  names  you  will  see ! 
Indeed,  the  most  American  group  of  whites  are  the  least 
progressive  of  all  the  groups  that  make  up  our  cosmo- 
politan population.  I  speak  more  directly  of  the  poor 
white  mountaineers.  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  speaking  of 
these  people  in  his  book,  'The  Southern  South,'  com- 
pares them  with  the  people  of  New  England  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century.  Then  there  are  the  poor  native  whites 
living  in  places  such  as  Clinton  and  Franklin  counties 
(Xew  York),  Aristook  county  (Elaine),  and  AMndham 
county  (Connecticut).  Prof.  Branson,  of  North  Caro- 
lina, speaking  of  these,  compares  them  to  those  crab-like 
creatures  mentioned  in  'Les  ^Miserables,'  people  who, 
'before  advancing  light,  steadily  retreat  into  the  fringe 
of  darkness,'  while  the  Chicago  Daily  Journal,  Oct.  3, 
1916,  wonders  if  some  of  these  people  are  not  beyond  the 
help  of  education.  These  poor  whites,  by  the  way,  are 
the  purest  representatives  of  that  Anglo-Saxon  strain 
that  the  Dixons,  Watsons  and  Tillmans  are  always 
bragging  about.  They  are  a  striking  example  of  stag- 
nation. ]\Iany  communities  of  them  are  far  below  many 
A\'est  African  ones.  Following  your  argument,  sir,  I 
would  be  justified  in  calling  them  inferior. 

"The  Negro,  however,  is  growing  out  of  the  ideas 
inculcated  in  slavery  and  each  succeeding  generation 
will  be  more  assertive  of  its  manhood.  As  I  will  repeat, 
he  only  lacks  training." 

"No  amount  of  training  will  ever  make  him  other 


40 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


than  a  Negro,"  snapped  the  passenger.  "He  is  simply 
incapable  of  governing  himself.  Who  evolved  the  white 
man's  government  for  him?  Look  what  a  miserable 
failure  Liberia  has  been !  Look  what  a  farce  Haiti  is ! 
There  never  has  been  a  successful  government  by 
Negroes,  and  there  never  can  be  one.  I'd  give  you  a 
hundred  dollars  just  to  name  me  a  single  one." 

"As  you  have  justly  intimated,  sir,  the  white  man's 
government  has  been  a  matter  of  evolution,  the  nucleus 
of  which  he  derived  from  peoples,  some  of  whom  are 
extinct.  Consider  the  painful  evolution  of  the  British 
government,  undoubtedly  the  most  stable  of  all  govern- 
ments. Historians  tell  us  that  the  Britons,  after  four 
hundred  and  sixty-four  years  of  Roman  rule,  almost 
relapsed  into  barbarism  when  left  to  themselves.  Lang 
tells  us  that  the  Picts  and  Dalriadic  Scots  after  driving 
out  the  English  fell  into  a  kind  of  quadrangular  warfare 
among  themselves.  Doesn't  this  sound  like  the  case  of 
Mexico  and  Haiti  today?" 

"But  these  countries  have  the  example  of  the  best 
governed  peoples  to  go  by,"  interrupted  the  passenger. 

"Well,  so  had  the  Britons,"  retorted  Dixon,  warmly. 
"It  took  infusion  after  infusion  of  superior  civilizations 
to  I  make  the  England  of  Edward  III.  As  mankind  through 
all  the  ages,  has  ever  been  the  same,  the  state  of  the 
less  developed  peoples  affords  the  more  highly  devel- 
oped a  fine  opportunity  to  observe  what  was,  in  all 
probability,  a  condition  similar  to  their  own  first  steps 
in  self-government.  But,  apart  from  old  Egypt, 
there  has  been  a  successful  government  conducted  by 
Negroes  which  thrived,  so  far  as  is  known,  for  more  than 
five  centuries — Uganda,  now  annexed  by  Great  Britain 
to  her  African  possessions.  When  Speke  discovered 
Uganda,  her  people  had  developed  a  high  state  of  civili- 
zation. 'Chinese'  Gordon  also  speaks  cordially  of  the 
fine  character  of  the  Uganda  government  under  King 
Mtesa." 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


41 


The  passenger  made  no  immediate  reply.  He  was 
ambitious  to  find  some  bad  trait  peculiar  to  the  Negro. 
His  m.ind  ran  over  the  list.  First,  he  thought  of  rape, 
but  he  had  read  the  Bible  and  i^new  the  first  rapes  on 
record  had  been  committed  by  white  men.  He  had  also 
sat  on  juries  where  white  men  had  been  committed  for 
this  crime;  and  he  remembered  the  treatment  Negro 
women  had  received  at  the  hands  of  white  men  during 
slaver}^  times.  No,  he  would  not  bring  up  this  point. 
His  opponent  had  been  too  skillful  in  finding  parallels 
between  black  and  white. 

The  passenger  thought  of  the  question  of  veracity. 
AMiite  men  Avere  not  always  truthful,  too.  He  thought 
of  stealing,  but  white  men  were  the  princes  of  theft.  He 
turned  to  immorality.  Here  he  hesitated  as  thoughts  of 
the  mulatto  came  into  his  mind ;  visions  of  the  big  city 
''tenderloin  districts''*  flashed  before  him.  as  well  as  the 
statistics  on  illegitimacy.  But,  having'  heard  so  often 
that  blacks  were  more  immoral  than  whites,  he  decided 
to  speak  of  Negro  immorality,  so,  striking  out  boldly,  he 
demanded :  ''The  highest  sign  of  the  culture  of  a  race 
is  the  control  that  race  exercises  over  the  animal  passions 
by  the  sheer  power  of  its  intellect,  isn't  it?'' 

Dixon  assented. 

"Well,  the  Caucasian,  being  far  more  moral  than  the 
Negro,  is  consequently  the  superior.  The  Negro  has  no 
more  ideas  of  morality  than  a  monkey;  in  fact,  he  is 
non-moral."  He  then  went  on  to  relate  some  of  his 
experiences. 

"The  Negro,  too,  holds  a  ver\-  low  opinion  of  Cau- 
casian morality,"  replied  Dixon.  'T  have  seen  on  sleep- 
ing-cars, and  in  hotels,  incidents  similar  to  those  you 
have  mentioned,  but  it  would  not  be  just  to  take  these 
instances  as  criterions.  Our  only  guide  in  this  matter 
must  be  scientific  opinion,  and  that  is  in  favor  of  the 
Negro.  Havelock  Ellis,  probably  the  greatest  living  sex 
psychologist,  in  'Studies  in  the  Psychology  of  Sex'  (Vol. 


42 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


3,  p.  261),  after  giving  two  convincing  reasons  in  favor 
of  the  savage,  goes  on  to  say,  'It  is  a  common  notion  that 
the  Negro  and  Negroid  races  of  Africa  are  prone  to 
sexual  indulgence.  This  notion  is  not  supported  by 
those  who  have  the  most  intimate  knowledge  of  these 
peoples.  It  probably  gained  currency  in  part  to  the 
open  and  expansive  temperament  of  the  Negro  and  in 
part  to  the  extreme  sexual  character  of  many  African 
orgies  and  festivals.'  And  Finot  says,  'These  accusa- 
tions must  fall  before  facts.' " 

The  passenger  did  not  reply,  so  Dixon  continued: 
"I  have  another  quotation  from  Havelock  Ellis,  bear- 
ing on  this  same  topic.  It  reads,  'The  importance,  even 
sacredness  of  procreation  is  much  more  generally  recog- 
nized by  savages  than  by  civilized  peoples,  and  also  a 
certain  symbolic  significance  is  attached  to  human  pro- 
creation as  related  to  natural  fruitfulness  generally,  so 
that  a  primitive  orgy,  instead  of  being  a  mere  manifesta- 
tion of  licentiousness,  may  have  a  ritual  significance." 

"But  that  does  not  mean  the  Negro  in  America," 
objected  the  passenger.  "No  one  can  ever  persuade  me 
that  the  Negro  is  not  more  lustful  than  the  Caucasian. 
The  Negro's  lustfulness  will  ever  prevent  him  from  being 
of  any  consequence.  Negro  boys  and  girls  learn  well  up 
to  a  certain  age,  but  their  strong  animal  nature,  that 
trait  which  links  them  nearer  to  the  monkey  than  it  does 
any  other  race,  will  ever  make  them  the  inferior  of  white 
children." 

"What  you  say  about  the  morals  of  the  Negro  is 
partly  true,  sir.  The  morality  of  the  mass  of  the  Negroes 
is  lamentably  bad ;  but,  if  Havelock  Ellis  and  his  sup- 
porters are  right  is  not  civilization  largely  responsible  for 
this  condition?  The  white  man  has  been  living  in  con- 
cubinage with  the  Negro  woman  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years !  Wouldn't  that  spoil  the  morals  of  any  people, 
however  pure  originally?" 

"Nothing  will  ever  persuade  me,"  persisted  the  pass- 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


43 


enger,  ''"that  the  Caucasian  is  in  any  way  as  lustful  as 
the  Xegro/'''  And  he  went  on  to  make  a  comparison  of 
certain  instances  that  had  come  to  his  notice. 

'■'I'm  inclined  to  believe,"  responded  Dixon,  '''that  sex 
instinct  is  more  highly  developed  among  the  whites  than 
among  the  Xegroes.  Havelock  Ellis  conclusively  proves 
that  the  more  developed  a  people,  the  stronger  the  sex 
instinct.  The  Xegro  eats  less  stimulating  food,  works 
more  laboriously,  and  has  less  leisure  than  the  white 
man.  The  whites,  on  the  other  hand,  have  more  uplift- 
ing diversions.  The  Xegro  does  appear  to  be  more  im- 
moral, but  I  think  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  his  pov- 
erty prevents  him  from  being  as  secretive  as  the  whites, 
and  that  the  whites,  with  more  self-respect  due  to  their 
superior  training,  are  more  desirous  of,  and  more  skillful 
at  concealment." 

Dixon  paused  a  moment  to  consult  his  note  book, 
then  added:  'T  have  a  quotation  here  from  the  ']\Iedi- 
cal  Review  of  Reviews''  for  July,  1916,  which,  I  am  sure, 
you  will  find  interesting.  It  says,  in  commenting  on  the 
report  of  the  Baltimore  A'ice  Commission:  Tt  tells  a 
tale  of  lust  and  sexual  deceit  and  whoredom  among  the 
must  reputable  Baltimoreans — it  lifts  the  cover  from  a 
never-ceasing  cauldron  of  sensuality  and  seduction. 
Baltimore  is  a  city  taken  in  adultery.  .  .  .  The 
tv-elve  hundred  pages  of  this  report  are  a  transcript 
of  the  white  man's  sexual  life  anywhere :  a  record  which 
should  prevent  him  from  criticising  other  races.'  " 

"'But  X'egro  women  are  very  immoral,"  persisted  the 
passenger,  at  the  same  time  illustrating  his  viewpoint 
with  some  of  his  experiences. 

'T  have  no  reason  to  doubt  your  experiences,  sir," 
responded  Dixon,  "but  similar  tales  can  be  told  of  Cau- 
casian wom.en.  Which  people,  for  instance,  poses  for 
those  pictures  which  Anthony  Comstock  labored  to  sup- 
press?   But  this,  too,  is  no  criterion." 

The  other  made  no  reply,  so  Dixon  continued :  "'Have- 


44 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


lock  Ellis  tells  of  a  French  army  surgeon,  who,  in  his 
'Untrodden  Fields  of  Anthropology,'  says  that  it  is  a 
mistake  to  imagine  the  Negress  is  very  amorous  and 
that  she  welcomes  the  embraces  of  white  men.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  generally  conceded  that  civilized  woman, 
especially  she  of  European  stock,  prefers  men  of  the  Don 
— v/ell — does  not  incline  to  the  St.  Anthony  type.  Have- 
lock  Ellis  says  that  uncivilized  woman  is  far  more  mod- 
est than  her  civilized  sister.  Were  it  not  for  legal  re- 
straint, I  am  sure  that  the  standard  of  modesty  among 
women  of  the  more  advanced  Caucasian  countries  would 
be  much  belov/  what  it  is.  The  tendency  is  toward 
boldness  in  dress  and  conversation.  Havelock  Ellis  says 
that  in  certain  parts  of  West  Africa,  among  the  better 
families,  the  unchaste  bride  is  punished  in  a  manner  so 
cruel  that  I  do  not  like  to  mention  it.  I  know  person- 
ally of  one  rite  the  natives  of  Sierra  Leone  used  to  prac- 
tice, until  prevented  by  the  British,  which  showed  the 
high  value  these  people  placed  on  chastity.  Again, 
Shakespeare,  in  his  'Sonnets  to  Sundry  Notes  of  Music,' 
IV,'  did  not  have  Negresses  in  mind  when  he 
wrote,  nor  did  Weininger,  Schopenhauer,  Bocaccio,  Bal- 
zac and  de  Maupassant." 

"Despite  all  you  may  say  to  the  contrary,"  retorted 
the  passenger,  "the  standard  of  morality  among  white 
women  is  far  higher  than  among  Negro  women." 

Dixon  responded :  "I  believe  that  a  much  greater 
percentage  of  white  women  maintain  their  honor  than 
Negro  women,  but  solely  because  the  white  women  have 
superior  youthful  training;  on  the  other  hand  perver- 
sions are  much  more  frequent  here.  I  do  not  speak,  how- 
ever, in  condonation  of  the  Negro  woman.  She  is  not  at 
all  blameless.  She  is  still  the  great  medium  by  which 
intermixture  is  being  carried  on ;  and  she  cannot  plead 
physical  bondage  today.  Nor  is  this  illicit  relationship 
with  white  men  confined  to  the  ignorant  classes  of  col- 
ored women.    I  will  add  in  passing  that  one  great  men- 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


45 


ace  to  the  morals  of  colored  women,  ignorant  and  other- 
wise, is  the  visits  of  the  white  installment  collectors,  in- 
surance men  and  others  to  the  homes  when  the  husband 
is  at  work.  But  the  statement  that  all  Negro  women  are 
immoral — a  statement  Avhich  I  hear  on  the  cars  from 
time  to  time — only  the  other  day  a  director  in  an  insur- 
ance company  made  it  to  me — can  only  mean  one  of  two 
things :  either  it  is  a  case  where  all  seems  infected  that 
the  infected  spy,  or  the  speaker  has  been  associating  with 
a  class  of  colored  women  as  imm^oral  as  himself,  and 
formed  his  opinion  there.  I  am  convinced,  from  what  I 
have  seen  and  heard,  that  any  improvement  in  the  mat- 
ter of  Negro  morals,  to  be  effective,  must  be  accompanied 
by  a  reform  in  the  morals  of  the  white  man." 

The  train  stopped  and  Dixon  went  out  to  open  the 
trap-door.  During  his  absence  the  passenger  was  again 
diligently  revolving  in  his  mind  all  the  conventional 
points  of  Negro  inferiority.  At  last  he  found  one — a 
trait  which  he  felt  sure  the  whites  had  never  possessed. 
Now,  certain  of  victory,  he  waited  for  Dixon's  return. 
Seeing  him  pass,  he  hailed  him.  Dixon,  however,  had 
to  put  some  newly-arrived  passengers  to  bed  and  it  was 
some  time  before  he  could  return.  When  he  did  return 
the  passenger  said  impressively:  ''I  have  a  point  here 
which  conclusively  proves  Negro  inferiority.  The  Negro, 
and  the  Negro  alone,  is  guilty  of  the  most  repulsive,  the 
most  debasing  practice  known  to  humanity — the  eating 
of  human  flesh.  Negroes  are  still  cannibals.  Even  in 
this  country  you  can  find  Negroes  whose  parents  were 
cannibals,  since  it  was  not  until  1830  that  the  importa- 
tion of  Africans  to  these  shores  ceased.  And  these,  who 
are  here,  would  be  cannibals  yet  if  we  had  not  dragged 
them  away.  The  Caucasian  has  never  been  guilty  of 
cannibalism,  not  so  far  as  we  can  trace  our  history, 
thank  God." 

Dixon  seemed  unimpressed.  He  said,  quietly,  'Tt  is 
true  that  cannibalism  still  exists  in  parts  of  Africa  and 


46 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


I  understand  among  certain  Indian  tribes  in  the  wilds 
of  Brazil,  but  these  savages  do  not  view  this  practice  in 
the  light  we  do.  I  wonder  if  I  may  read  you  what  Finot 
has  to  say  on  this  subject?" 

The  passenger  did  not  reply;  however,  Dixon  found 
the  place  and  began:  "If  a  mother  passes  through  a 
village  with  her  little  one,  a  traveller  tells  us,  all  the 
others  will  go  to  her  and  take  the  child,  hold  it  in  their 
arms  and  make  it  jump.  A  cannibal  who  has  just  enjoyed 
a  piece  of  human  flesh  is  quite  as  capable  of  doing  this 
as  the  most  sensitive  of  our  civilized  folk.  Cannibalism 
itself  does  not  there  present  to  these  people  the  repulsive 
aspects  that  affect  us,  and  to  which  we  object  so  strenu- 
ously." 

Dixon  closed  the  book  and  continued:  "Contrary  to 
your  assertion,  however,  sir,  branches  of  the  white 
variety  of  mankind  have  been  cannibals.  Herodotus  tells 
us  that  the  Scythian  soldier,  vampire-like,  used  to  suck 
out  the  blood  of  the  first  enemy  he  killed  in  battle.  The 
Issedonians,  he  also  says,  used  to  eat  their  dead,  and  the 
Padaeans  would  kill  and  eat  those  of  their  numbers  who 
were  sick  or  approached  senility.  The  Huns  used  to 
drink  human  blood  out  of  the  skulls  of  the  enemies  they 
killed  in  battle.  But  more,  I  think  I  have  a  quotation 
here  from  St.  Jerome.  Yes.  Here  it  is.  He  says, 
'When  I  was  a  boy  in  Gaul  I  beheld  the  Scots,  a  people 
living  in  Britain,  eating  human  flesh,  and  although  there 
were  plenty  of  cattle  and  sheep  at  their  disposal,  they 
would  prefer  a  ham  of  the  herdsman  or  a  slice  of  fe- 
male breast.'  So  you  see,  sir,  cannibalism  among  black 
and  white  is  rather  a  matter  of  time  than  people  or 
place.  But  the  men  who  steadily  grind  out  the  lives 
of  their  fellows  in  sweat  shops  and  live  on  the  proceeds 
are,  to  my  thinking,  less  merciful  than  the  African  who 
eats  the  flesh  of  his  enemy  slain  in  battle." 

The  passenger  appeared  more  embarrassed  than  ever. 


FROM    SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


47 


While  Dixon  had  been  speaking  another  point  had  come 
to  him.    He  advanced  it  hesitatingly: 

'■"^-^'hat  of  the  disagreeable  odor  of  the  Negro?  I  have 
known  some  of  our  Southern  ladies  to  faint  from  this 
skunk-like  odor." 

Dixon  smiled  inwardly.  Was  this  man's  sense  of 
smell  biased,  too?  He  remembered  that  recently  he  had 
been  reading  advertisements  of  odor-removing  prepara- 
tions in  a  prominent  journal  and  he  knew  that  the  adver- 
tisement was  not  meant  to  greet  the  eyes  of  Xegroes, 
especially.  He  also  thought  of  several  other  points 
that  he  had  noticed,  but  his  delicacy  of  feeling  forbade 
him  mentioning  them.  He  said,  instead,  "I  have  in  my 
note  book  here  a  relevant  quotation  from  Sir  Henry 
Johnstone's  'Xegro  in  the  New^  World?'  ]\Iay  I  read  it 
to  you,  sir?" 

The  other  did  not  reply;  hovrever,  Dixon  found  the 
place  and  began :  "A  striking  peculiarity  of  the  Afri- 
can is  the  musky,  goat-like  smell  exhaled  from  the  sweat, 
more  especially  the  axillary  glands.  The  odor  is 
markedly  characteristic  of  the  African  (it  has  not  hith- 
erto been  recorded  among  Asiatic  Negroes),  but  also 
occurs  to  a  much  slighter  degree  among  Europeans  as 
an  exhalation  from  the  armpits.  Yet  I  would  make  bold 
to  say  that  this  skin  odor  is  not  so  disgusting  as  that 
which  comes  from  heated  and  unwashed  Europeans  and 
Asiatics.  It  is  practically  absent  from  many  Africans 
Avho  keep  their  bodies  washed  and  clean.  AA^hile  in  the 
United  States  I  mixed  with  Negro  crowds  and  scarcely 
noticed  any  disagreeable  smell,  for  the  Negroes,  like 
the  American  whites,  seem  to  be  an  inherently  cleanly 
people.  I  only  detected  the  presence  of  disagreeable 
body  odors  coming  from  the  Oii'ensively  dirty  Chinese 
traveling  in  public  conveyances  or  coming  from  the 
newdy-arrived  immigrants  in  Nevv'  York. 

"Finot  says,  'Tor  a  long  time  it  was  thought  that 
white  men  were  exempt  from  this,  but  now  we  have  to 


48 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


admit  a  strong  smell  peculiar  to  white  skins — a  smell 
which  the  Japanese  declare  to  be  insupportable/  Age- 
bebi  also  says  that  the  African  complains  of  the  odor 
of  the  white  man." 

Silence  for  a  few  minutes  broken  only  by  the  rattling 
of  the  train.  Dixon,  in  spite  of  his  endeavor  to  sup- 
press it,  had  the  buoyant  air  of  a  winner.  The  passen- 
ger on  the  other  hand  appeared  worried  and  generally 
ill  at  ease.  He  apparently  could  think  of  no  effective 
retort  just  then  for  he  began  to  cavil. 

"A  little  while  back,"  he  began,  "you  said  'Caucasian 
blood  figuratively  speaking?'  What  do  you  mean?  Per- 
haps the  next  thing  you  will  tell  me  is  that  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  Caucasian  blood." 

''There  is  neither  Caucasian  nor  Negro  blood,"  Dixon 
stated  simply,  repressing  every  indication  of  the  triumph 
he  felt,  "but  just  human  blood.  I  wonder  if  I  may  read 
you  what  Finot  has  to  say  on  the  subject." 

The  passenger  nodded  his  assent. 

Dixon  found  the  place  and  was  about  to  begin  read- 
ing when  both  men  started  nervously  from  their  seats. 

"What's  that?"  demanded  the  passenger. 

A  noise  like  the  barking  of  a  dog  came  from  the 
body  of  the  car. 

"Someone  having  a  nightmare,  I  should  say,"  guessed 
Dixon ;  "one  hears  some  queer  noises  in  a  sleeping  car 
at  night." 

"Can't  be.  That's  a  real  dog,"  rebutted  the  other, 
somewhat  gruffly.  Dixon  went  in  to  investigate,  and 
presently  returned,  smiling. 

"You  were  right,  sir,  it  was  a  dog.  A  lady  had  a 
poodle  in  her  basket.  In  making  down  the  beds,  I 
pushed  the  basket  up  against  the  steam  pipes  and  the 
poor  little  fellow  was  being  roasted.  He  was  voicing  his 
protest  when  we  heard  him." 

Dixon  then  began  to  tell  him  about  a  passenger  who 
had  walked  in  his  sleep,  but  the  traveller,  who,  ap- 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


49 


parently  was  not  listening,  again  brought  up  the  topic 
of  Caucasian  and  Negro  blood.  Dixon  again  found  his 
passages  and  began : 

''The  anthropologists  have  not  succeeded  in  finding 
the  essential  variations  in  the  composition  of  the  blood 
between  men  of  yellow,  black  and  white  colors,  of  broad 
and  narrow  skulls,  of  the  smallest  cranial  capacity  and 
those  of  most  astonishing  greatness.  What  is  no  less 
conclusive  is  that  the  part  w^hich  the  composition  of  the 
blood  plays  in  demonstrating  the  difference  between  races 
and  species  is  known.  It  is  only  the  blood  of  beings 
belonging  to  the  same  variety  and  the  same  race  which 
may  be  injected  into  them  with  impunity.  Thus  the 
blood  of  a  hare  may  be  injected  into  the  organism  of  a 
rabbit  or  that  of  a  mouse  into  that  of  a  rat,  but  the 
blood  of  a  man  may  not  be  injected  into  the  organism 
of  a  dog,  horse  or  any  other  animal.  Neither  can  the 
blood  of  an  animal  be  injected  into  the  veins  of  a  man. 
In  all  these  cases  the  foreign  blood  will  be  destroyed 
or  destroy  the  organism  w-hich  receives  the  injection. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  blood  of  a  black  man  may  be 
injected  into  the  blood  of  a  white  or  yellow.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  the  form  of  the  skull,  as  w^ell  as  the 
other  grounds  on  which  the  anthropological  divisions  of 
human  beings  rest,  plays  as  negative  a  part  as  the  color 
of  the  skin." 

Dixon  found  another  place  and  read : 

"  'The  oldest  of  all  human  classifications  is  at  the 
same  time  one  of  the  most  defective.  Its  errors  are 
obvious  the  moment  the  specific  characteristics  of  each 
of  the  categories  are  considered.  For,  while  am^ong  the 
whites,  there  are  men  w^hose  skins  are  as  black  as  ebony, 
the  Bicharis  or  the  Black  ]\Ioors  of  Senegal,  there  are 
among  the  blacks,  fair  or  yellow  skins  like  the  Bushmen. 
Whence  is  this  difference  of  color?  The  skin  of  the 
Negro,  the  yellow  man  and  the  white  is  identical  as  to 
that  which  concerns  its  composition,  the   derm,  the 


50 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


mucous  membrane  and  the  epidermis.  What  varies  is 
the  color  of  the  cells  of  the  mucous  membrane;  these 
are  blackish  brown  in  the  Negro,  pale  yellow  in  the  fair 
white,  a  yellow  more  or  less  in  the  brown  whites.  But 
when  this  difference  of  coloring  is  examined  closely,  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  the  milieu  represented  in 
particular  in  this  case  by  the  intensity  of  the  solar  rays, 
exercises  a  preponderant  influence  on  it/ 

"I  have  also  a  quotation  from  Von  Luschan,  profes- 
sor of  Anthropology  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  on  this 
matter  of  color,  in  his  paper  before  the  Races  Congress. 
With  your  permission,  I  will  read  it.  He  says:  'Still 
weaker  and  more  objectionable  is  the  division  as  to  color. 
We  now  know  that  color  of  skin  and  hair  are  only 
the  effect  of  environment,  and  that  we  are  fair  be- 
cause our  ancestors  lived  for  thousands  probably  tens  of 
thousands  of  years  in  sunless,  foggy  countries.  Fair- 
ness is  nothing  else  but  lack  of  pigment  and  our  ances- 
tors lost  part  of  their  pigment  because  they  had  no 
use  for  it.'  " 

Schopenhauer  says :  "There  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
white  race,  much  as  this  is  talked  of,  but  every  white 
man  is  a  faded  or  bleached  one." 

Dixon  commented:  "I  do  not  know  if  you  have  ever 
noticed  it,  sir,  but  there  is  a  great  similarity  between 
the  varieties  in  physique  in  man  and  dog.  We  have  dogs 
with  white  skins  and  silky  hair;  with  black  skins  and 
woolly  hair;  with  long  noses  and  snub  noses;  with  round 
heads  and  long  heads ;  with  high  cheek  bones  and  ordi- 
nary ones,  just  as  among  the  different  varieties  of  man- 
kind. There  is  also  a  suspicious  resemblance  between 
the  color  of  the  Caucasian  and  just  plain  pork.  Indeed, 
very  few  Caucasian  beauties  can  equal  in  complexion  the 
rosy,  dainty  freshness  of  a  newly-shaved  sucking  pig." 

The  passenger,  who  was  listening  attentively,  made  no 
comment.    Dixon  resumed  his  reading: 

"  'Very  frequently  the  so-called  inferior  races  show 


FROM   SUPERTAX    TO  MAN 


51 


precisely  the  physiological  properties,  which,  by  revising 
all  preconceived  methods,  place  them  at  the  head  of 
humanity.  After  having  stated  that  superior  races  are 
furthest  removed  from  the  anthropoid  Apes,  whilst  in- 
ferior races  are  nearest  them,  they  bring  together  all 
the  facts  which  in  this  respect  favor  the  whites  and 
entirely  forget  those  in  Avhich  Xegroes  are  shown  to 
be  favored.  .  .  . 

"  'In  the  blood  of  modern  Europeans  flows  that  of 
Negroes,  who  lived  on  our  continent  at  the  end  of  the 
Quartenary  epoch.  .   .  . 

"  'Let  us  remember  that  according  to  Guiseppe  Sergi. 
Professor  Brinton  and  others  that  the  white  race,  the 
ethnographical  pride  of  Europe,  is  only  the  direct  fruit 
of  a  Xegro  race — the  European-Africans  established  from 
time  immemorial  and  who  came  from  North  Africa.  .  " 

''But  what  about  the  skull  of  the  Negro?"  objected 
the  passenger,  at  this  juncture.  "The  brain  of  the  Negro 
is  much  smaller  than  that  of  the  Avhite  man.  The  com- 
plexity of  the  convolutions  of  the  Negro's  brain  is  also 
far  less  intricate.  It  is  not  unlike  that  of  any  orang-outang. 
The  sutures  of  the  Negro  skull  also  close  much  earlier 
than  the  white  man's  and  thus  prevent  the  growth  of 
the  brain." 

"Of  this  Finot  says,"  read  Dixon :  "  'AH  these 
measurements  with  their  imposing  numbers  and  scien- 
tific prelentions,  as  also  the  theoretic  observations,  re- 
solve themselves  as  we  have  seen  into  a  nebulous  doc- 
trine, which  affirms  many  things  and  proves  nothing. 
The  exact  instruments  which  anthropologists  and  crani- 
ometrists  use  ofiFer  a  fantastic  data.  ,The  results  of  their 
operations  are  deposited  in  thousands  of  volumes,  and 
yet,  Avh.it  is  the  real  meaning?  In  examining  them 
closely  one  can  hardly  attribute  to  them  even  a  descrip- 
tive value,  so  much  do  they  contradict  and  destroy  each 
other.'  " 

Dixcn  began  to  look  for  another  passage  that  he  was 


52 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


desirous  of  reading.  While  finding  it,  he  commented: 
"In  this  passage  note  the  difference  between  the  voices 
of  science  and  prejudice.  'An  analysis  of  all  the  suc- 
cessive theories  on  inequality  created  in  us  before  every- 
thing else  a  profound  astonishment  at  the  inertness  of 
our  thought.  When  we  go  through  the  list  of  external 
differences  which  appear  to  divide  men  we  find  literally 
nothing  which  authorizes  their  division  into  superior 
and  inferior  beings.  The  science  of  inequality  is  em- 
phatically a  science  of  white  people.  It  is  they  who 
have  invented  it,  and  set  it  going,  who  have  maintained, 
cherished  and  propagated  it,  thanks  to  their  observations 
and  their  deductions.  Deeming  themselves  greater  than 
men  of  other  colors,  they  have  elevated  into  superior 
qualities  all  the  traits  which  are  peculiar  to  themselves, 
commencing  with  the  whiteness  of  the  skin  and  the 
pliancy  of  the  hair.  But  nothing  proves  that  these 
vaunted  traits  are  traits  of  racial  superiority.  Human 
varieties  have  not  been  studied  like  those  of  animals  and 
plants  without  conventional  prejudices  to  their  respective 
values  and  as  to  those  which  are  superior  and  inferior. 
Facts  have  often  yielded  to  sentiments.  We  have  often 
been  persuaded  with  the  help  of  our  feelings  to  accept 
our  own  preferences  rather  than  impartial  observations 
and  our  own  prejudices  rather  than  scientific  laws.  The 
purity  of  the  blood  which  we  create  at  will  and  which  we 
find  in  the  animal  world  becomes  impossible  in  the  human 
milieu.  The  Negroes  are  related  to  the  Whites  who  are 
linked  to  the  Yellows  as  these  last  have  common  links 
with  both  Negroes  and  Whites.' " 

The  passenger  started  to  reply,  but  just  then  the 
train  conductor  entered  and  began  to  ask  Dixon  about 
certain  tickets.  Dixon  explained  that  he  had  them  in 
the  locker,  and  asking  to  be  excused,  left  the  room  with 
the  conductor. 

Shortly  afterward  the  passenger  retired,  but  the 
thought  of  his  defeat  forbade  sleep.    He  was  in  a  blind 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


53 


rage.  Why  had  he  started  to  argue  with  this  menial? 
The  idea  of  a  Negro,  a  common  porter  belonging  to  a 
race  he  so  heartily  contemned,  possessing  enough  knowl- 
edge to  beat  him  in  an  argument!  His  anger  increased 
as  he  remembered  the  calm  and  polished  bearing  of  his 
opponent  as  contrasted  v/ith  his  rude  manner,  he,  a  Cau- 
casian, and  a  state  senator.  And,  worst  of  all,  too,  he 
had  to  acknowledge  even  to  himself  the  logic  of  the 
porter's  argument.  As  he  kept  revolving  some  of  the 
points  in  his  mind  his  hatred  for  the  whole  Negro  race 
welled  up  in  his  heart  stronger  than  ever.  Ah !  but  after 
all  there  was  some  consolation !  This  man  was  only  a 
Negro  porter,  and  no  matter  how  much  knowledge  he 
possessed,  he,  as  a  Caucasian,  was  a  better  man.  Every- 
body recognized  him  as  such.  He  had  better  advan- 
tages and  could  enter  places  where  this  Negro  dared 
not.  But  deep  in  his  heart  was  an  involuntary  admira- 
tion for  his  opponent. 


SECOND  DAY. 

"The  man's  body  is  sacred,  and  the  woman's  body  is  sacred. 
"No  matter  who  it  is,  it  is  sacred — is  it  the  meanest  one  in  the 
laborer's  gang? 

"Is  it  one  of  the  dull-faced  immigrants  just  landed  on  the  wharf? 
"Each  belongs  here  or  anywhere  just  as  much  as  the  well-off,  just 
as  much  as  you. 

Each  has  his  or  her  place  in  the  procession." — Walt  Whitman. 

The  passenger  slept  late  the  next  morning.  On 
awakening,  better  thoughts  came  to  him.  These  were 
improved  by  Dixon's  cheery  and  respectful  salutation. 
To  this  greeting  he  responded  in  a  shamefaced  and 
somewhat  gruff  manner,  but  Dixon  refused  to  notice 
this.  All  that  day  the  passenger  noted  Dixon's  conduct 
— his  unobstrusive  manner,  his  solicitude  for  the  women 
passengers,  his  gentleness  with  the  children,  and  his 
amiability  to  all,  and  began  to  like  him  in  spite  of  him- 


54 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


self.  Yet,  the  thought  of  his  defeat  rankled  in  his  breast, 
and  he  determined  to  seek  another  occasion  to  talk  with 
Dixon  in  the  hope  of  regaining  his  lost  ground. 

That  night,  Dixon  again  retired  to  the  smoker  to 
read.  He  had  read  but  a  short  while  when  the  passen- 
ger entered.  Dixon  was  sitting  in  the  chair  this  time. 
He  arose,  urging  courteously,  "Won't  you  have  the 
chair,  sir?  I'm  sure  you  will  find  it  more  comfortable 
than  the  couch." 

"No,  thank  you,"  refused  the  other,  motioning  him 
to  keep  his  seat,  at  the  same  time  passing  his  cigarette 
case,  a  kindness  which  Dixon  smilingly  refused. 

"Suppose  we  resume  our  talk,"  suggested  the  pas- 
senger after  a  few  minutes  of  silence. 

"My  sermon,  I  fear,  sir,"  laughed  Dixon,  "since  I 
have  been  doing  all  the  talking,  or  rather,  preaching.  I 
really  don't  want  to  preach  to  you." 

Now,  Dixon  had  guessed  this  man's  object,  on  his 
entrance,  and  determined  to  circumvent  him  if  possible. 
Although  passionately  fond  of  debating,  he  did  not  like  to 
argue  the  color  question,  especially  with  whites.  He  had 
chided  himself  much  for  the  argument  of  the  night 
before,  and  determined  not  to  be  caught  again.  At  the 
moment  the  passenger  entered,  Dixon  was  reading  of 
Negro  mentality,  but  just  prior  to  that,  he  had  been 
reading  about  the  ancient  Celts,  so  he  replied: 

"I  have  been  reading  about  the  Druids,"  and  then, 
without  giving  the  other  a  chance  to  reply,  he  began  to 
speak  about  the  customs  of  these  ancient  Britons.  Then 
he  started  to  tell  of  the  various  countries  he  had  visited. 
Now  and  again  the  passenger  would  make  some  remark 
calculated  to  lead  the  conversation  into  the  channel  he 
desired,  but  each  time  Dixon  would  adroitly  evade  it. 
Once  Dixon  told  of  an  incident  in  Damascus,  where  a 
Syrian  was  carrying  a  good  many  chickens  to  market, 
with  their  legs  tied  together  and  hanging  head  down- 
ward, and  the  other  immediately  made  an  allusion  to 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


55 


Negroes  and  chickens  in  the  South.  But  Dixon  steered 
clear  of  this  by  immediately  telling  him  of  the  ruins  of 
ancient  Ass3^ria.  Then  he  spoke  of  the  ruins  of  ancient 
Greece,  of  Pompeii,  the  Colosseum,  and  the  ruins  of 
the  Cliff-dwellers  in  New  Mexico,  Arizona  and  Utah. 
The  passenger  then  pointed  out  that  the  Negro  had  no 
such  monuments  to  his  credit.  Dixon  mentioned  the 
Sphinx,  and  was  just  going  to  tell  him  about  a  visit  to 
the  Pyramids,  when  the  other  wedged  in  a  remark  about 
the  Negro  and  the  Indian,  and  then  began  to  speak  of 
the  superiority  of  Indian  mentality  over  that  of  the 
Negro.  He  concluded  by  saying,  "The  Indian  did  not 
submit  to  slavery,  while  the  Negro  did.  My  great- 
grandmother  was  the  daughter  of  a  Cherokee  chief  and 
I  am  proud  of  it.  Now,  don't  you  really  think  the 
Indian  is  the  mental  superior  of  the  Negro?" 

Dixon  did  not  reply  for  a  few  moments,  then  sud- 
denly making  up  his  mind,  he  said  to  himself,  ''You  want 
me  to  argue  the  color  question,  do  you?  All  right,  I  will, 
but  don't  blame  me  if  I  tell  you  a  few  plain  truths." 
Then  speaking  aloud,  he  said :  "The  Indians  were  en- 
slaved successively  by  the  Spanish,  French  and  English. 
There  were  Indian  slaves  from  Canada  to  Louisiana. 
The  decline  of  Indian  slavery  was  due  largely  to  its 
being  an  economic  failure.  The  Indian  could  not  stand 
the  hardships,  nor  the  whiskey  and  the  diseases  of  the 
white  man.  Large  numbers  of  them  died  from  small- 
pox, consumption  and  syphilis.  A  white  slave  was  far 
more  valuable  than  an  Indian,  and  a  Negro  was  more 
valuable  than  either.  One  Negro  slave  sometimes  fetched 
as  much  as  nine  Indians.  A  Negro  laborer  was  reck- 
oned as  the  equivalent  of  five  or  six  Indians.  You  can 
find  some  interesting  reading  about  this  in  'Studies  in 
History,  Economics  and  Public  Law,'  Columbia  Uni- 
versity (Vol.  54). 

"There  were  also  Indian  slaves  in  the  remainder  of 
the  New  World,  but  everywhere  they  came  in  contact 


56 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


with  the  white  man,  they  declined.  Take  the  island  of 
Jamaica,  for  instance.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
after  its  discovery  the  Arawak  Indians  had  totally  dis- 
appeared. They  could  not  stand  slavery,  while  the  Negro 
brought  there  as  a  slave,  and  subjected  to  as  harsh  or 
harsher  treatment,  is  today  master  of  the  island.  I  have 
seen  a  great  deal  of  Indian  life,  and  I  think  it  much 
below  the  Negro  standard." 

The  passenger  again  brought  up  the  subject  of  Negro 
mentality  and  Dixon  referred  him  to  the  following  quo- 
tation from  Myers,  Lecturer  on  Experimental  Psychol- 
ogy at  the  University  of  Cambridge,  England,  in  his 
paper  before  the  Races  Congress : 

"The  mental  characters  of  the  majority  of  the  peasant 
class  through  Europe  are  essentially  the  same  as  those 
of  primitive  communities." 

Just  then  another  passenger,  on  his  way  from  the 
observation  car,  entered  the  room,  and,  handing  a  tele- 
gram to  Dixon,  asked  him  to  send  it  at  the  next  stop. 
When  this  passenger  had  gone,  the  other  once  more 
brought  up  the  subject  of  Negro  mentality.  Dixon  then 
read  to  him  the  following  passage  from  Finot:  "It  is 
fruitless  to  maintain  the  theory  of  the  mental  inferiority 
of  Negroes.  Twenty  years  of  intellectual  work  has  often 
proved  sufficient  for  a  Maori,  Zulu,  Red  Skin  or  Negro 
to  win  back  in  his  individual  self,  the  centuries  of  mental 
arrest  or  mental  sleep  experienced  by  his  congeners.  This 
property  common  to  all  human  being  provides  them  at 
once  with  a  trait  of  ineffacable  equality. 

"The  psychology  of  primitive  peoples  and  especially 
of  Negroes  strangely  resembles  that  of  the  uncultured 
classes  of  Europe.  Their  prepossessions,  ideas  and  super- 
stitions betray  a  similarity  which  draws  them  singularly 
together.  The  inhabitants  of  Negro  villages  in  Central 
Africa  are  like  the  peasants  living  far  from  railways  in 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


57 


the  extreme  north  of  Russia,  or  the  extreme  south  of 
Italy." 

Dixon  then  loAvered  his  book,  and  remarked:  "One 
of  the  greatest  arguments  brought  forward  in  sup- 
port of  Xegro  inferiority — an  argument  that  not  a  few 
Negroes  are  inclined  to  admit — is  that  the  Negro  has 
been  a  slave.  But  I  am  sure  that  if  the  slave  traders 
had  captured  some  primitive  European  people,  and  sub- 
jected them  to  the  same  dehumanizing  treatment,  the 
result  would  have  been  the  same.  For  instance,  in  Rich- 
ard Hildreth's  '^Memoirs  of  Archie,  a  AVhite  Slave,'  a 
prominent  slave-dealer  says  (here  Dixon  consulted  his 
note  book)  :  'Just  catch  a  stray  Irish  or  German  girl 
and  sell  her — a  thing  sometimes  done — and  she  turns  a 
'hiigger"  at  once,  and  makes  just  as  good  a  slave  as  if 
there  were  African  blood  in  her  A^eins.'  " 

He  now  closed  his  note  book,  saying  at  the  same 
time :  '"The  more  I  study  anthropology,  the  stronger  is 
my  belief  that  the  difference  between  one  people  and 
another  is  the  result  of  environment." 

''But,"  objected  the  passenger,  "even  in  the  black 
man's  home,  the  white  man  is  master.  Look  how  easy 
it  is  for  sm.all  numbers  of  white  men  to  rule  large  num- 
bers of  Africans!  Look  in  India!  A  mere  handful  of 
English  persons  holding  in  subjection  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  natives.  Then,  too,  take  the  New  World.  What 
was  it  before  the  white  man  came  here?  Imagine  what 
it  would  be  now  if  the  white  man  had  not  come  here. 
Look  at  China,  the  oldest  country  in  the  world!  It  stood 
still  until  the  white  man  got  there.  Japan  owes  its 
progress  to  the  white  race.  The  white  man  has  con- 
quered or  overrun  almost  every  country  on  the  globe. 
He  rules  Europe,  the  whole  of  Africa,  except  one  or  two 
inconsequential  spots;  the  far  greater  part  of  Asia,  the 
Avhole  American  Continent  and  Australia;  in  fact,  he  is 
master  of  the  Vv'orld.    That  the  world  is  a  better  place  to 


58 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


live  in  is  due  entirely  to  the  magic  touch  of  the  white 
race." 

"Of  course,"  concurred  Dixon,  "The  Caucasian  is  the 
most  advanced  and  we  must  look  to  certain  of  its  branches 
to  take  the  lead  in  material  progress.  I  readily  admit  that 
the  general  awakening  all  over  the  world  is  due  almost 
entirely  to  his  energy.  But  even  this  energy  is  conquered 
by  the  climate,  which  has  retarded  the  growth  of  many  of 
these  peoples  you  speak  about.  The  white  man  going 
to  these  countries  with  his  superior  fighting  implements, 
his  more  developed  intellect  and  higher  civilization,  has 
a  decided  advantage  over  the  natives.  But  he  must  be 
reinforced  from  time  to  time  by  fresh  numbers  or  he, 
too,  is  likely  to  yield  to  the  spell  of  the  climate.  I  have 
seen  white  men  in  the  tropics  sink  so  low  as  to  be  objects 
of  disgust  to  the  lowest  native.  Blackburn,  speaking  of 
this,  says :  Tn  Africa  the  animalistic  self-indulgent  white 
man  approximates  yet  nearer  the  animal ;  the  intellectu- 
ally active,  destitute  of  the  stimulus  of  conversation  and 
encounter  with  diverse  opinion  and  nimble  wits,  becomes 
an  intellectual  fungoid.'  The  white  immigrant  in  the 
tropics  becomes  less  energetic,  while  the  black  one  in 
northern  latitudes  improves  in  energy.  The  Negro  of 
northern  latitudes,  I  think,  is  superior  in  energy  to  the 
average  white  man  in  the  tropics." 

"But  Negroes  have  been  living  in  northern  latitudes 
for  nearly  three  hundred  years,"  protested  the  passenger, 
"and  yet  from  among  them  has  not  emerged  one  single 
genius,  indeed,  not  even  a  famous  man.  Many  Negroes 
pampered  by  white  admirers,  and  gross  exaggerations 
from  their  own  race,  have  acquired  a  pseudo-fame,  but 
had  they  been  white  men  no  special  notice  would  have 
been  taken  of  them." 

"It  is  true,"  acknowledged  Dixon,  "that  the  Negro 
has  been  living  in  northern  latitudes  for  three  hundred 
years,  but  under  what  debased  conditions?    Just  see 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


59 


what  he  has  done  in  fiftv  years  of  freedom.  It  is  also 
probably  true  that  the  mediocre  attainments  of  certain 
Nesrroes  have  been  enhanced  bv  the  fact  of  their  color, 
but  is  it  not  also  probable  that  these  men  would  have 
done  better  but  for  the  handicap  of  color?  Thus,  you 
see,  one  compensates  for  the  other.  Then,  too,  since 
mediocrity  is  a  human  characteristic,  and  is  to  be  found 
in  human  beings  having-  the  widest  and  fullest  oppor- 
tunities for  advancement  and  development  why  marvel 
at  its  appearance  in  a  people  who  have  been  almost  uni- 
versally and  uniformly  oppressed  and  repressed  below 
the  level  of  self-respect? 

"Yet  there  are  many  Negroes  who  have  achieved 
prominence  regardless  of  color.  It  is  generally  con- 
ceded that  the  most  remarkable  man  that  the  South  has 
produced  since  Lincoln  is  Booker  T.  Washington.  In 
my  opinion  he  is  the  most  remarkable  figure  the  United 
States  has  yet  produced,  and  he  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  greatest  men  of  all  time.  There  are  also  many 
Negro  authors  of  unqualified  merit,  as  Dunbar,  Blyden, 
DuBois,  Kelly  ]\Iiller,  Braithewaite  and  Oscar  Alischeaux. 
DuBois  belongs  to  the  aristocracy  of  English  letters. 
There  are  few,  if  any,  living  English  authors  Avho  excel 
him  in  eloquence  and  elegance  of  diction.  He  is  doing 
more  than  an}^  other  that  I  know  of,  especially  through 
his  magazine,  'The  Crisis,'  to  awaken  the  Negro  to  a 
fuller  sense  of  his  manhood  rights.  Kelly  ^liller  is  a 
distinguished  sociologist  and  essayist,  and  a  born  mathe- 
matician, a  fact  apparent  in  his  writings,  for  although  he 
speaks  on  a  subject  that  must  afiect  him  deeply,  yet 
he  is  always  the  polished  analyst.  Braithewaite  is  one 
of  the  foremost  critics  of  poetry  in  this  country,  and 
Oscar  Mischeaux,  according  to  the  'London  Standard'  and 
other  critics,  is  in  the  front  rank  of  American  novelists. 
If  white  America,  with  thousands  of  years  of  culture 
behind  it,  has  produced  so  remarkably  few  geniuses,  not 
half  a  dozen,  how  can  you  expect  geniuses  from  a  peo- 


60 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


pie  but  recently  in  slavery's  chains?  In  two  European 
countries,  men  of  Negro  descent,  Poushkin  and  Dumas, 
have  led  all  the  others  in  their  respective  spheres." 

The  wind  was  whistling  through  the  ventilators, 
blowing  in  small  flakes  of  snow.  Dixon  arose  and  closed 
the  transom. 

"But  the  ability  of  these  men  is  due  to  their  white 
blood,"  said  the  passenger  when  Dixon  returned.  "The 
pure-blooded  Negro  is  incapable  of  reasoning.  He  learns 
things  like  a  parrot." 

"No,  indeed,  sir,"  protested  Dixon.  "When  I  was  in 
Europe,  I  met  and  heard  of  many  African  lads  fresh 
from  the  jungles,  who  were  acquitting  themselves  with 
honor  in  the  best  universities  there.  An  Oxford  gradu- 
ate told  me  of  one  James  Chala  Selfy,  an  old  classmate 
of  his,  who,  as  a  boy,  was  taken  at  random  from  among 
among  hundreds  on  a  captured  slave  ship  and  carried  to 
England.  This  lad  eclipsed  his  classmates,  especially 
in  Latin  and  Hebrew.  Abbe  Gregoire  speaks  of  Amo, 
a  full-blooded  Negro  who  was  an  astronomer  and  lec- 
tured on  philosophy  at  the  University  of  Wittenberg.  A 
Zulu  once  won  the  gold  medal  for  oratory  at  Columbia 
University.  Kelly  Miller  is  a  distinguished  mathema- 
tician, and  there  is  Dr.  Bowen  of  the  Gammon  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  In  1914  a  full-blooded  Negro  led  all 
his  classmates  at  Harvard.  Psychology  really  is  inde- 
pendent of  color.  Negroes  like  the  Haytian  novelist, 
Fernan  Hilbert,  have  been  able  to  write  novels  depicting 
the  sensations  and  emotions  of  the  whites  in  a  way  to 
satisfy  the  whites  themselves.  Shakespeare,  when  he 
created  Othello  with  such  stateliness  of  character,  saw 
that  color  had  no  effect  on  the  soul.  One  of  the  ablest 
of  Othellos  was  Ira  Aldridge,  the  African  Roscius ;  Bilal, 
a  full-blooded  Negro,  was  the  first  to  utter  the  Azan,  or 
Call  to  Prayer  of  the  Mohammedans,  ranking  next  to 
Mahommed,  who  accorded  him  precedence  in  Heaven; 
Kafur,  a  full-blooded  Negro,  was  also  one  of  the  most 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


61 


famous  of  the  Mahommedan  rulers  of  Egypt;  Hannibal, 
great-grandfather  of  Poushkin,  the  father  of  Russian  lit- 
erature, was  a  general  in  the  Russian  army.  Sir  Samuel 
Lewis  and  Sir  J.  Thomas  of  Sierra  Leone  are  full-blooded 
Negroes,  and  I  could  name  you  many  more.  If  the  full- 
blooded  Negro  has  not  accomplished  a  great  deal,  it  is 
simply  because  he  has  not  had  an  opportunity.  There 
is  absolutely  nothing  that  a  white  man  can  accomplish 
that  a  full-blooded  Negro  cannot.  Sir  Harry  Johnston, 
the  greatest  authority  on  the  Negro,  says,  in  'The  New 
Statesman' :  'There  is  literally  nothing  in  the  way  of 
education  that  the  Negro  cannot  master  and  master 
rapidly.' " 

The  passenger,  who  appeared  to  be  thinking  deeply, 
made  no  comment.  After  a  few  moments  of  silence, 
Dixon  took  up  his  book  and  again  began  to  read.  After 
reading  a  few  minutes,  he  remarked :  ''Here  are  some 
interesting  facts  from  Finot  relative  to  the  progress  of 
the  Negro.  He  says :  'In  1899  there  were  eight  per  one 
thousand  destitute  among  the  Negroes.  The  whites  show 
_as  many,  but  these  last  had  sixty-four  rich  for  one  rich 
Negro'.  Of  one  hundred  proprietors  seventy-five  whites 
to  twenty-five  blacks.  But  proportionately  the  latter 
should  not  have  exceeded  twelve  or  thirteen.  Of  one 
hundred  Negro  houses,  eighty-seven  were  free  from 
mortgage,  while  there  were  seventy  whites.'  " 

Dixon  added:  "The  census  of  1910  shows  one  pau- 
per for  every  1,053  whites,  against  one  in  1,565  for  the 
Negro. 

"The  fact  of  this  advance  from  comparatively  nothing 
ought  to  silence  this  talk  of  color  superiority,  an  advance 
below  par,  it  is  true,  when  one  considers  the  enormous 
wealth  of  the  country,  or  the  progress  of  the  European 
immigrant,  but  really  miraculous  under  the  double  handi- 
cap under  which  he  has  had  to  struggle. 

"The  Indian,  in  spite  of  the  greater  partiality  shown 
him,  cannot  stand  the  rigors  of  civilization,   The  Indian 


62 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


is  not  increasing;  the  Negro  is.  If  survival  of  the  fit- 
test is  the  test  of  virility,  the  Negro  ranks  v^ith  the  best. 
Indeed,  that  fortitude  that  brought  him  through  tv^o  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  of  a  cruelty  unparalleled  in  the 
pages  of  medieval  or  modern  history;  that  tenacity  v^hich 
makes  him  hold  on  when  the  Indian  quits ;  that  inde- 
pendent spirit  v^hich  keeps  him  in  lesser  numbers  from 
the  poorhouse  than  the  Caucasian,  with  his  thousand 
superior  chances ;  that  buoyancy  of  soul  that  makes  him 
to  smile  even  in  the  midst  of  persecution,  would  justify 
my  saying  he  is  the  fittest  of  the  fit." 

The  bell  began  to  ring  just  as  Dixon  was  concluding, 
and  asking  to  be  excused,  he  went  to  answer  the  call. 
Coming  back  to  the  smoker,  he  drevv^  a  glass  of  water 
and  took  it  inside.  When  he  returned,  the  passenger 
remarked  with  some  hesitancy :  "The  Negro  is  uncouth. 
He  has  a  lot  to  learn.  He  lacks  the  finer  feelings  of  the 
white  man.  Listen  to  a  gathering  of  Negroes  anywhere, 
like  so  many  flocks  of  jays,  or,  rather,  crows — jim-crows. 
Listen  to  their  loud  guffaws  on  the  street-cars  of  North- 
ern cities.  You  never  see  white  persons  acting  like  that 
anywhere." 

This  seemed  to  be  the  topic  Dixon  was  awaiting 
when  he  made  the  resolve  to  tell  his  opponent  a  few 
plain  truths.  Now,  he  remembered  a  remark  made 
by  the  latter  the  first  afternoon  in  the  smoker.  All  "nig- 
gers," he  said,  were  alike.  At  that  particular  time  it 
was  out  of  Dixon's  province  to  say  anything,  even  had 
he  so  wished,  but  now  was  his  chance  and  he  determined 
to  take  the  opportunity  to  tell  the  other  what  he  con- 
sidered a  few  plain  truths,  so  he  remarked,  composedly: 

"There  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  what  you  say  about 
the  Negro,  sir,  but  it  does  not  apply  to  him  alone.  The 
major  portion  of  every  people  are  unpolished ;  but  in 
setting  his  standard,  the  white  picks  out  the  cream  of 
his  own  and  endows  the  remainder  with  all  the  good 
qualities  of  this  portion.    Inversely, '  he  picks  out  the 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO   MAN  63 


worst  of  the  Negro  and  measures  the  good  by  the  con- 
duct of  the  bad,  insomuch  that  at  the  very  mention  of 
his  name  the  Negro  has  already  been  weighed  in  the 
balance  and  found  wanting.  One  often  hears  someone  in 
speaking  of  a  good  Negro  say,  'He  is  colored,  but  '  " 

''But,"  protested  the  passenger,  "Negroes  are  also 
inclined  to  look  down  upon  their  own  people.  Indeed, 
some  exhibit  the  highest  contempt  for  their  own  kind." 

"I  readily  admit  that,"  agreed  Dixon.  "Indeed,  a 
good  many  are  harsher  to  their  own  people  than  are  many 
of  the  whites.  A  good  many,  as  you  say,  have  the 
greatest  contempt  for  their  own  and  many  would  sooner 
patronize  a  business  conducted  by  a  white  person  than 
by  one  of  themselves,  even  if  the  business  of  the  white 
be  inferior.  On  the  whole,  I  generally  meet  a  higher 
grade  of  courtesy  among  the  whites  than  among  my  own 
people,  but  only  when  I  am  content  to  occupy  a  menial 
position.  The  average  Negro  does  need  a  greater  respect 
for  his  own  people.  But  he  is  not  singular  in  this,  for 
I  have  met  many  Jews  and  a  few  Irish  who  look  down 
on  their  own  people.  One  of  the  greatest  anti-Semites 
that  I  have  ever  met  proved  later  to  be  a  Jew  himself. 
Depreciate  any  name  and  certain  of  its  possessors  will 
always  try  to  escape  it.  But  as  I  was  going  to  say,  the 
majority  of  the  Caucasians  are  of  the  mediocre  class, 
even  here  in  America.  This  class,  accomplishing  noth- 
ing beyond  the  powers  of  a  similar  class  of  Negroes, 
most  arrogantly  plumes  itself  upon  the  accomplishment 
of  the  higher  class  of  whites,  its  arrogance  and  easy 
assumption  of  superiority  increasing  in  proportion  to 
its  inability.  But  I  do  not  blame  these  half-educated 
whites  very  much.  They  merely  reflect  in  a  coarse  way 
the  actions  and  sentiments  of  a  very  large  number  of 
the  educated  whites.  I  can't  see  any  difference  between 
the  spirit  of  the  scavenger  v\^ho  will  object  to  working 
with  a  Negro,  and  that  of  a  Princeton  or  Vassar  student 
who  will  object  to  one  in  the  class-room. 


64 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


"You  also  justly  remarked  that  certain  Negroes  were 
loud  and  uncouth.  This  happens  also  to  be  the  same 
opinion  many  Europeans  hold  of  some  the  American 
visitors  to  Europe.  In  the  tourist  season  you  can  see 
parties  of  American  tourists,  Baedekers  in  hand,  in  the 
Louvre,  the  Schonbrunn  or  on  the  Unter  den  Linden  all 
chattering  at  the  top  of  their  high,  piercing  voices  with 
their  *Hey,  siss,  lookee  yere,'  or  some  such  exclamation. 
They  will  even  enter  cathedrals  where  persons  are  at 
worship,  still  clattering  loudly.  And  their  loud  laughter 
on  tramways  or  omnibuses  is  just  as  unpleasant  to  the 
Europeans,  from  what  I  have  heard  them  say,  as  is  that 
of  certain  Negroes  to  the  more  cultured  classes  here  in 
America  irrespective  of  color." 

Dixon  could  see  from  the  flush  on  the  other's  face 
that  he  was  not  relishing  the  turn  the  conversation  had 
taken,  yet  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  acquaint  this  legislator 
with  the  other  side  of  the  story.  He  took  advantage  of 
the  silence  to  continue :  "The  general  attitude  of  white 
America  towards  the  Negro — I  except  those  who  render 
him  justice — is  that  of  a  man  who  is  doing  his  best  to 
prevent  his  theories  from  being  proved  wrong.  The  doc- 
trine of  Negro  inferiority  has  been  preached  for  a  long 
time.  Now  that  his  progress  has  proved  it  false,  every- 
thing, apparently,  is  being  done  to  prevent  the  truth 
from  coming  out.  This,  at  any  rate,  seems  to  be  the 
case:  for  the  usual  way  is  to  give  a  man  a  fair  trial, 
then,  if  he  fails,  accuse  him  of  inferiority,  but  to  accuse 
him  in  advance  is,  well — what  Bernard  Shaw  summarizes 
as  'The  sweet  reasonableness  of  the  Yankee.'  " 

As  the  passenger  was  not  replying,  Dixon  decided 
to  end  the  conversation  by  introducing  another  subject. 
After  a  short  pause,  he  inquired :  "You  have  been  West 
before,  haven't  you,  sir?"  But  the  passenger  evidently 
had  no  such  intention,  for  after  an  absent-minded  "Yes," 
he  resumed :  "You  spoke  a  little  while  back  of  the  arro- 
gance of  the  lower  class  white  man.    I  can  think  of  no 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


65 


more  arrogant  being  than  the  Negro  in  authority.  I 
have  met  Negro  porters  and  Negro  elevator  men  who 
acted  as  if  they  were  lords  of  all  creation.'' 

"I  know  many  such  myself,"  confirmed  Dixon, 
warmly.  ''^lany  Negroes  do  not  care  to  work  under 
bosses  of  their  own  people  on  account  of  the  severity 
and  exactions  of  many  of  them.  But  this  trait  is  not 
peculiar  to  Negroes.  White  'straw  bosses/  in  the  rail- 
road service,  especially,  are  just  as  ignorant  and  imperi- 
ous. Persons  like  these  badly  need  lessons  in  what  to 
me  represents  the  only  real  superiority — courteous  con- 
duct." 

Here  Dixon  remembered  the  other's  conduct  on  the 
first  afternoon  and  determined  to  rebuke  it.  He  con- 
tinued in  even,  impersonal  tones :  ''My  idea  of  a  superior 
man  is  one  who  has,  first  of  all,  a  nice  consideration  for 
the  feelings  of  others.  Such  a  one  never,  vulgarly  or 
otherwise,  asserts  his  color  or  his  social  position.  On 
the  contrary,  however  much  he  might  think  himself  supe- 
rior to  others,  he  is  very  careful  not  to  mention  it.  It 
is  no  uncommon  thing  to  hear  persons  expressing  their 
conception  of  their  own  importance  by  speaking  con- 
temptuously of  others  in  such  terms  as  'Dagos/  'Shee- 
nies,'  'Bohunks,'  'Niggers,'  'coons,'  'Crackers/  'poor  white 
trash.'  The  mere  fact  of  a  man's  proclaiming  his  superi- 
ority is  in  itself  an  indication  that  he  feels  it  cannot 
speak  for  itself." 

Dixon  could  easily  see  from  the  flush  on  the  other's 
face  that  he  had  taken  his  remarks  personally,  but,  feel- 
ing that  his  opponent  really  needed  the  lesson,  he  con- 
tinued in  a  tone  impressive  in  spite  of  its  politeness :  "It 
strikes  me  that  the  one  great  thing  white  America  has 
yet  to  decide — again  I  except  those  who  practice  justice 
to  the  Negro — is  this :  Is  the  Negro  a  man,  or  is  he,  as 
DuBois  says,  'a  tertium  quid,  a  creature  somewhere 
between  man  and  cattle'?  He  is  legislated  against  and 
contemned,  and  everything  that  will  tend  to  destroy  his 


66 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


self-respect  is  done.  And  the  irony  of  it  all  is  that  the 
Negro  is  expected  to  smile  and  be  pleasant  always.  But 
he  is  going  to  stop  smiling  some  of  these  days  and  settle 
down  to  serious  thought.  Already  some  of  these  smiling 
ones  are  like  Hugo's  Laughing  Man,  whose  face  of  con- 
stant laughter  hid  a  heart  often  full  of  bitterness." 

Although  Dixon  could  see  that  the  other  was  getting 
more  and  more  irritated,  he  continued :  "Very  often  on 
these  cars  and  in  hotels,  I  have  heard  white  men  say 
scurrilous  things  of  the  Negro,  altogether  disregarding 
my  presence.  Especially  do  they  delight  in  speaking, 
even  boasting  to  m^e,  of  their  amours  with  Negro  women. 
And  usually  these  are  the  ones  who  are  most  sensitive 
about  the  women  of  their  own  people.  Chicken  steal- 
ing, too,  according  to  the  jokesmiths,  seems  to  be  the 
principle  diversion  of  a  Negro.  Very  many  white  per- 
sons cannot  imagine  a  Negro,  however  decent,  as  being 
anything  else  but  a  minstrel,  and  jokes  like  these  are 
supposed  to  represent  the  depth  of  Negro  character. 
These  and  other  beliefs  cause  us  to  reflect  not  a  little  on 
this  matter  of  superiority,  for,  since  truth  is  the  most 
superior  thing  in  all  the  world,  it  is  evident  that  we  are 
superior  to  others  only  in  proportion  as  we  exceed  them 
in  living  up  to  the  truth." 

The  passenger  got  up  excitedly.  This  lecturing,  he 
thought,  this  presumption  on  the  part  of  the  Negro,  was 
a  little  more  than  he  could  stand.  He  started  for  the 
doorway,  but  when  half  way  changed  his  mind.  No,  it 
would  never  do  for  him,  a  white  man,  to  run  away  and 
leave  the  Negro  master  of  the  field.  He  began  pacing 
the  room,  reflecting  in  the  meanwhile,  his  body  swaying 
with  the  motion  of  the  train.  Why  should  he  be  angry? 
First,  it  was  he  v/ho  had  invited  the  discussion,  then  the 
other,  even  though  frank,  had  been  respectful.  Indeed,  he 
was  struck  by  the  courteous  bearing  of  the  man.  Sec- 
ond, this  man  was  telling  the  truth.  What  was  his  rea- 
son for  being  angry  at  hearing  the  truth  told?    In  the 


FROM    SUPERMAX    TO  MAX 


67 


analysis  of  this  question  many  points  between  right  and 
policy  in  the  treatment  of  the  Xegro  dawned  upon  him 
for  the  first  time.  The  latter  course  he  had  begun  to 
see  was  wrong.  In  this  thoughtful  vein,  he  reseated 
himself,  lit  another  cigarette  and  relapsed  into  thought. 
After  a  few  minutes,  apparently  as  the  result  of  his 
reflections,  he  demanded,  as  he  flicked  the  ashes  from 
his  cigarette  with  his  little  finger,  ''Am  I  to  infer,  then, 
that  prejudice  against  the  Xegro  is  a  distinctively  Ameri- 
can trait?" 

''Xo,'"'  responded  Dixon,  who  during  the  interval  had 
been  studying  the  play  of  emotions  on  the  countenance 
of  the  other.  ''Color  prejudice,  or  rather  color  egotism, 
is  not  a  distinctively  American  trait,  as  it  exists  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  in  the  Dominion  of  South  Africa,  being 
especially  keen  in  the  old  Boer  Republics;  in  Canada, 
especially  the  northwestern  portion ;  and  to  a  mild  extent 
in  the  West  Indies — principally  by  the  lighter-colored 
persons  against  the  darker.  Color  egotism  is,  however, 
peculiarly  American  in  this :  there  has  never  been  one 
recorded  case  of  lynching,  not  even  in  the  Transvaal  or 
Orange  River  Colony,  where  the  dislike  for  the  X^'egro 
is  as  great  or  greater  than  in  the  South ;  there  are  no 
segregation  laws  except  in  the  places  first  mentioned; 
and  in  all  British  Colonies,  again  excepting  the  same  two, 
all  men  are  really  equal  before  the  law.  In  all  of  these 
countries  intellect,  in  no  matter  whom,  is  respected,  and 
the  intellectual  Xegro  suiters  little  discrimination.  It 
must  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  X^egro  in  the  United 
States  is  far  ahead  of  the  South  African  X^egro.  The 
percentage  of  illiteracy  in  Xatal  among  Xegroes  is  about 
90  per  cent.  The  Xegro  in  the  United  States,  especially 
in  the  X'orth,  is,  on  the  whole,  ahead  of  the  X'egro  every- 
where else.  In  all  of  the  countries  I  haA'e  mentioned, 
color  prejudice  is  directed  mostly  against  the  ignorant 
Xegro — a  procedure  none  the  less  wrong.  In  the  United 
States,  on  the  other  hand,  very  littlg  discrimination  is 


68 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


made  between  good  and  bad,  lettered  and  unlettered, 
between  the  esthete  of  the  DuBois  and  Tanner  class  and 
the  worthless  Negro.  Indeed,  one  might  say  the  unlet- 
tered Negro,  the  'Uncle  Tom'  kind,  is  more  popular,  he 
being  most  often  idealized  in  white  novels.  From  this, 
one  might  rightly  argue  that  in  the  United  States  we 
have  color  jealousy,  and  not  color  prejudice;  not  con- 
tempt, but  fear.  Abroad  I  suffered  no  color  dis- 
crimination— indeed,  I  often  found  it  an  asset — while  in 
the  United  States  I  have  it  everywhere  thrust  at  me  that 
I  am  not  of  the  fold.  Even  in  remote  Northern  villages 
like  Merrill,  Wis.,  I  have  been  hooted  at  or  refused  food. 
As  I  travel  over  the  country  my  greatest  difficulty  is  to 
have  food  served  me.  There  are  towns  in  the  North 
where  the  most  self-respecting  Negro  would  not  be  per- 
mitted to  reside.  Yet  we  are  American  citizens.  Our 
past  is  in  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  republic.  The  Spar- 
tan was  not  more  unflinchingly  loyal  to  his  country  than 
we  are ;  yet,  in  spite  of  it  all,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  even  the  but-yesterday-arrived  descendants  of  those 
whom  our  forefathers  fought  to  make  this  Republic  pos- 
sible, newly-arrived  as  they  are,  have  virtually  far  more 
rights  than  we  because  of  their  more  popular  color.  We 
antedated  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  by  one  year,  and  while 
their  descendants  constitute  the  social  nobility  of  Amer- 
ica, we  are  still  in  the  discard.  Indeed,  although  the 
Negro,  class  for  class,  thinks  in  pretty  much  the  same 
channels  and  has  pretty  much  the  same  habits  as  the 
whites,  not  to  speak  of  his  blood  relationship,  the 
tendency  is  to  speak  of  all  Negroes  as  if  they  had  but 
recently  arrived  from  Africa.  I  fear  Baron  d'Estournelles 
de  Constant  of  the  French  Senate  was  right  when  he  said 
in  his  recent  book  on  the  United  States,  'The  Negro  is  a 
freedman,  not  a  citizen. 

"But  the  Negroes  in  these  South  American  countries 
and  in  the  West  Indies  belong  to  a  higher  type  of  Negro," 
retorted  the  passenger.   "The  most  peaceful  Negroea 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAX 


69 


were  taken  to  those  countries,  while  the  most  cannibal- 
istic and  the  most  warlike  came  to  our  shores." 

'"That  statement,  if  true,  I  think  would  have  no  bear- 
ing on  the  case,"  said  Dixon.  ''The  Negro,  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  as  I  have  noticed,  is  just  what  his 
treatment  makes  of  him.  In  Brazil  and  the  AVest  Indies, 
I  found  the  average  Negro  keenly  conscious  of  his  dig- 
nity as  a  man  and  a  citizen.  In  the  United  States,  where 
numbers  are  against  him,  and  where  he  has  to  slink,  as 
it  were,  through  life,  afraid  to  go  into  this  or  that  place, 
w^ondering  w^hether  colored  persons  are  served  there,  he 
is  naturally  timid.  Yes,  I  candidly  believe  the  American 
entertains  more  prejudice  for  the  Negro  than  does  any 
other  nationality.  Recently  the  head  of  one  of  the  most 
famous  educational  institutions  in  the  world  was  ejected 
from  a  sleeping-car  solely  on  account  of  color.  A  simi- 
lar incident  would  have  happened  in  no  other  part  of  the 
world.  Sir  Charles  Bruce,  G.C.M.G.,  in  his  paper  before 
the  Races  Congress,  said  that  the  Negro  in  the  United 
States  had  encountered  at  every  step  of  his  progress 
'the  most  formidable  opposition  that  the  forces  of  avarice, 
jealousy,  hate,  and  fear  have  been  able  to  command.' 
Whilst  I  have  met  white  persons  in  this  country  who, 
despite  their  environment,  are  in  every  way  as  broad- 
minded  as  white  persons  I  have  met  in  Europe  or  any- 
w^here  else,  I  have  noticed  North,  South,  East  and  AVest, 
but  especially  in  the  South,  so  general  an  exhibition  of 
this  prejudice,  ofttimes  from  persons  one  would  think 
above  such  petty  conduct,  that  I  have  come  to  the  un- 
willing conclusion  that  far  more  often  than  not,  a  white 
skin  in  America  is  the  livery  of  servitude  to  the  most 
stupid  and  exacting  of  all  tyrants  —  Czar  Prejudice. 
There  are  servitors  of  varying  degrees  from  the  fanatic- 
ally devoted,  as  the  lyncher,  to  the  morally  timid,  those 
who  will  not  notice  Negro  acquaintances  in  public  places 
for  fear  of  wdiat  others  will  think  of  them." 

The  passenger  did  not  reply. 


70  FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


Dixon  continued :  ''I  doubt  if  one  Caucasian  in  a 
million  of  those  who  do  not  like  Negroes  could  give  him- 
self one  honest  reason  for  his  attitude.  Lord  Brougham 
expresses  their  reason  when  he  says :  'I  never  knew 
anyone  to  hate  me  but  those  whom  I  had  served  and  him 
who  had  done  me  some  great  injustice/  Peoples  from 
all  over  the  world  come  to  America  in  search  of  greater 
individual  liberty  and  find  it,  too ;  yet,  if  the  Negro,  an 
original  citizen  of  the  Republic,  ever  wishes  to  know 
how  it  feels  to  be  a  real  man,  he  will  have  to  go  to  the 
country  whence  these  peoples  came.  And  what  makes  it 
harder  to  bear  is  that  one  hears  so  many  absolute  state- 
ments about  liberty,  democracy  and  unlimited  oppor- 
tunity for  all.  When  I  returned  to  the  United  States 
after  being  abroad  for  six  years,  I  landed  at  a  Southern 
port.  There,  debarred  from  the  parks,  libraries  and 
public  amusements,  I  felt  mentally,  in  this  land  of  free- 
dom, how  the  murderer  of  King  Humbert  must  have 
felt  in  his  cell,  the  size  of  which  did  not  permit  him 
either  to  stand  upright  or  to  lie  at  full  length." 

"But,"  protested  the  passenger,  "the  South  treats  the 
Negro  far  better  than  the  North.  In  the  South  nearly 
all  the  manual  labor  is  given  to  the  Negro.  We  have  a 
large  number  of  Negro  mechanics  in  the  South,  while 
they  are  comparatively  rare  in  the  North.  Negroes  find 
ready  employment  in  Southern  factories,  while  they 
rarely,  if  ever,  get  into  a  Northern  one.  I  know  of  one 
Southern  factory  that  employs  several  hundred  Negroes. 
Then  the  bulk  of  our  unskilled  labor  is  given  to  them. 
Janitors,  porters,  waiters  and  domestics,  are  all  Negroes. 
In  the  North  they  are  white  men,  mostly  foreigners.  We 
are  also  more  sympathetic  to  the  Negro.  We  know  his 
failings  and  take  them  into  account  in  judging  him ;  in 
the  North,  he  is  held  to  the  same  standard  of  morality 
as  the  white  man.  The  Negro  knows  he  can  always  find 
a  friend  in  us.  Many  have  I  helped,  many  have  I  saved 
from  prison  by  my  influence.    The  South  does  treat  the 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


71 


Negro  better  than  the  North.  The  North  gives  him  lots 
of  sentiment,  but  refuses  him  a  chance  to  earn  a  living." 

"I  fear  I  cannot  altogether  agree  with  you,  sir,"  re- 
plied Dixon.  "While  it  is  true  that  the  Southerner  is 
more  sympathetic  to  the  Negro  than  the  Northerner, 
yet  the  former,  as  a  rule,  is  only  so  to  those  Negroes 
vv^ho  will  fawn  upon  him.  It  is  also  true  that  Negroes 
find  readier  employment  in  the  South,  but  this  is  due 
rather  to  necessity  and  color  pride  than  to  altruism.  Ray 
Standard  Baker  tells  of  one  instance  where  the  chief 
argument  used  against  the  rapacity  of  the  mob  Avas  that 
it  was  cotton-picking  time  and  Negro  labor  was  being 
frightened  away.  This  better  opportunity  for  employ- 
ment is  overbalanced  by  the  liberty,  largely  theoretic 
though  it  is,  that  the  Negro  has  in  the  North.  The 
Northern  policy  tends  to  improve  his  self-respect,  to 
awaken  him  to  his  place  in  the  universe.  This,  I  hold, 
is  more  valuable  than  money  to  the  country  as  well  as 
to  the  Negro.  In  the  South,  on  the  other  hand,  every- 
thing is  done  to  destroy  his  self-respect — to  crush  his 
soul.  On  a  recent  trip  I  was  forced  to  spend  two  weeks 
in  Louisiana  and  Alabama,  and  the  treatment  I  received 
from  the  customs  that  prevail  there  made  me  feel  as  if 
I  had  stepped  back  into  the  Dark  Ages.  It  was  a  great 
relief  to  return  North." 

The  passenger  made  no  comment.  Dixon  getting 
bolder  and  bolder,  his  earnestness  slightly  tinged  with 
a  sarcasm  that  leaked  out  through  even  his  desire  to  be 
polite,  continued:  "Juvenal,  Voltaire,  Dean  Swift  nor 
any  of  the  great  masters  of  satire  never  had  so  pregnant 
and  suggestive  a  theme  as  that  ofifered  by  the  question 
of  a  pigmented  or  unpigmented  skin  with  or  without 
silky  hair,  and  the  supposed  significance  of  these  appear- 
ances to  the  intellect;  in  short,  whether  the  physical 
attributes  of  a  person  are  not  a  more  reliable  index  to 
his  worth  and  character  than  his  psychic  qualities.  This 
doctrine — this  profoundest  ignorance  of  which  the  human 


72 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


mind  is  capable — thrives  in  many  halls  of  the  learned. 
In  this  tragic  farce  there  are  a  thousand  and  one 
idiosyncracies.  For  instance:  a  Negro  chauffeur  or  jani- 
tor and  his  family  will  be  permitted  to  live  in  the  most 
exclusive  neighborhood,  but  if  a  Negro  artist  or  profes- 
sional man,  though  a  paragon  in  character,  were  to  do  so, 
there  would  be  a  storm  of  protest,  and  he  would  be 
likely  to  have  his  house  set  on  fire  at  night  while  he  and 
the  family  were  asleep,  as  was  the  case  with  a  Negro 
artist  in  Oak  Park,  111.,  recently;  a  white  man  may  live 
in  undisturbed  concubinage  with  a  Negress,  but  let  him 
attempt  to  live  with  her  in  a  moral  manner,  and  the  law 
will  at  once  send  him  to  prison,  as  in  cultured  California 
and  Indiana ;  a  lady  whose  baby  is  being  suckled  by  a 
Negro  nurse  and  who  is  being  attended  by  a  Negro  por- 
ter, will  go  into  hysterics  because  another  Negro  is  a 
passenger  in  the  same  car;  a  pugilist  marries  a  woman 
in  his  own  class,  and  a  very  large  number  of  the  better 
class  of  citizens  lose  their  heads,  jim-crow  bills  flood  the 
legislatures,  many  of  them  becoming  laws ;  a  proprietor 
will  refuse  me  a  sandwich  in  the  business  part  of  his 
lunch-room  lest  his  serving  me  there  should  make  me  the 
social  equal  of  his  guests  and  thus  give  me  and  every 
other  Negro  a  right  to  call  upon  him  and  every  other 
white  person  in  their  homes ;  a  certain  law  will  permit 
the  m.ost  unclean  Indian  or  Mexican  to  ride  in  a  car  from 
which  the  most  aesthetic,  well-dressed  Negro  would  be 
barred,  or  indeed,  even  a  white  person,  should  he  declare 
he  had  Negro  blood.  But  the  situation  becomes  tragic 
when  it  results  in  so  gross  an  injustice  as  this:  a  Negro 
kills  his  wife  and  her  white  lover  taken  flagrante  delicto. 
The  jury  acquits  the  husband  for  killing  his  wife,  but 
sentences  him  to  death  for  killing  the  lover.  Voltaire 
spoke  wisely  when  he  said:  'Prejudice  is  the  reason  of 
fools.'  No  doubt  many  of  these  persons  are  sincere,  but 
what  has  education  done  for  such?    Wherein  do  they 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO   MAN  73 


differ  in  conduct  from  those  unsophisticated  Africans 
who,  as  we  saw,  shun  a  white  skin  ?'  " 

Dixon,  in  spite  of  his  assurance  of  being  passionless, 
had  warmed  up  to  his  subject.  He  had  spoken  rather 
more  heatedly  than  he  had  intended.  Now,  thoroughly 
ashamed  of  himself,  he  took  up  his  book  again. 

The  passenger  appeared  to  be  buried  in  thought. 
After  a  few  moments  he  inquired  with  ill-concealed  sar- 
casm :  "Am  I  to  infer,  then,  that  you  are  in  favor  of 
social  equality?" 

"No,  sir,"  responded  Dixon,  with  cheery  decisiveness. 

"But,"  queried  the  other,  puzzled  but  molHfied,  "how  is 
it  possible  to  have  equal  rights  without  social  equality?" 

"Hasn't  the  white  man  equal  rights,  and  yet  not  social 
equality  ?" 

"You  are  always  going  off  at  a  tangent,"  complained 
the  other.  "You  must  have  understood  me.  I  mean,  am 
I  to  infer  that  you  are  in  favor  of  social  equality  be- 
tween black  and  white?" 

"No,  sir,  I  am  not,  for,  apart  from  the  fact  that  social 
equality  will  never  exist,  not  even  among  the  members 
of  similar  people,  there  are  a  good  many  whites  also 
Negroes,  with  whom  I  would  dislike  to  associate." 

"Well,  you  are  too  critical,  anyway ;  what  I  mean  is 
this :  do  you  infer  that  Negroes  should  meet  white  per- 
sons in  a  social  wa}^ — call  upon  them — that  is,  pay  them 
social  visits  in  the  homes?" 

Dixon  responded :  "If  such  persons  are  friendly 
enough  for  that,  why,  certainly.  I  can  see  no  valid  rea- 
son why  kindred  souls,  regardless  of  color,  cannot  meet 
in  this  country  for  an  interchange  of  thought  when  they 
meet  in  Europe  among  the  same  white  race.  Each  of 
the  peoples  in  question  can  learn  something  ennobling 
from  the  other,  and  ennobling  influences  have  no  color. 
When  the  Caucasian  reads  Terence,  Dumas,  Poushkin, 


74 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


DuBois  and  Ellis,  and  enjoys  the  music  of  Coleridge- 
Taylor,  or  admires  Tanner's  paintings,  he  associates  with 
what  for  a  better  name  we  will  call  Negro  thought. 
Does  he  feel  a  lowering  of  social  status  by  so  doing?" 

"But  from  the  vast  mass  of  Negroes  the  Caucasian 
has  absolutely  nothing  to  gain,"  protested  the  passenger, 
''and  if  we  let  down  the  bars  to  a  certain  class,  we'll  have 
to  let  them  down  to  all." 

''When  you,"  returned  Dixon,  with  some  show  of 
spirit,  "merely  allow  a  man  to  enjoy  his  God-given  rights, 
does  it  mean  that  you  have  to  invite  him  to  your  home 
against  your  will?  For  instance,  no  self-respecting  white 
man  would  think  of  visiting  you  socially  without  an 
invitation.  I,  a  Negro,  would  never  think  of  intruding 
in  another  Negro's  home." 

A  short  pause,  then  Dixon  continued,  still  more  ear- 
nestly :  "But  there's  another  and  more  important  aspect 
of  this  question  of  so-called  social  equality — the  human 
side.  The  great-hearted  man  refuses  to  imprison  his 
soul  behind  bars  of  creed,  color  or  caste.  Despite  social 
status  or  color,  he  enjoys  meeting  kindred  souls.  For 
him  grandeur  or  dignity  exists  only  in  simplicity,  sin- 
cerity and  sympathy.  As  it  is  in  the  province  of  even  a 
leper  convict  to  be  exclusive,  there  is  nothing  remark- 
able about  the  exclusive  man." 

"But  the  Negro  doesn't  want  to  mix  with  the  whites. 
He  prefers  to  maintain  his  separate  institutions,  to  seg- 
regate himself,  as  in  churches,"  retorted  the  other. 

"That  brings  us  back  to  our  conversation  about  the 
universality  of  human  nature.  You  will  doubtless  re- 
member that  the  Tories  did  not  want  to  be  freed  from 
the  tyranny  of  King  George.  There  are  many  human 
beings  who  will  stomach  anything  at  all  if  they  happen 
to  be  even  half-way  comfortable.  I  speak  especially  of 
my  people.  One  hears  not  infrequently :  'Well,  you 
know  this  is  a  white  man's  country,'  or,  'AVell,  you 
must  remember  you  are  colored.'    Such  still  have  the. 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


75 


spirit  of  slavery.  As  for  me,  I  was  born  in  this  country, 
it  is  just  as  much  mine  as  any  other  American.  And 
with  regard  to  segregation,  a  great  many  Negroes  do 
act  as  you  say,  but  under  the  present  circumstances  they 
can  hardly  be  blamed.  Apart  from  this  somewhat  jus- 
tifiable spirit,  you  will  find  a  great  many  Negroes  just 
as  illiberal  in  this  respect  as  the  average  white,  perhaps 
more  so.  I  would  wager  that  those  Negroes  who  want 
segregation  are  the  direct  descendants  of  that  deputation 
of  slaves  who  waited  on  Lincoln  and  entreated  him  not 
to  sign  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  But  the  fact 
that  some  Negroes  want  segregation  is  no  excuse  for  its 
existence." 

The  passenger  made  no  response,  so  Dixon  contin- 
ued :  ''And  speaking  of  segregation,  let  spread-eagle 
orators  rave  as  they  may,  we  have  in  this  Republic  a 
caste  system  immeasurably  more  vicious  than  that  of 
Europe,  and,  if  we  consider  our  superior  educational 
advantages,  worse  than  that  of  India.  In  Europe  the 
lower  classes  are  held  in  contempt  by  the  upper,  yet, 
except  as  in  Russia,  there  are  no  segregation  laws.  I 
will  say  in  passing,  but  not  in  defense  of  Russia,  that 
the  Jews,  as  a  rule,  wish  to  be  exclusive.  The  European 
peasant,  if  he  has  the  push,  may  rise  to  the  highest  of 
positions — Lloyd  George,  as  an  example.  Imagine  even 
the  most  cultured  and  capable  Negro  in  the  United 
States  Cabinet!  Here  in  the  United  States  this  associa- 
tion of  black  and  white  is  held  repulsive,  but  not  so  in 
Europe,  where  the  cultured  non-white  has  entree  to  the 
best  society.  The  French,  undoubtedly  the  most  aes- 
thetic of  all  peoples,  welcome  the  Negro.  Finot,  dilat- 
ing on  the  beauty  of  some  of  our  quadroons  and  octo- 
roons, says,  (here  Dixon  found  the  place)  :  'In  France 
and  in  Europe  all  these  women  would  be  surrounded 
with  the  praises  of  men,  whereas  in  the  Southern  States 
they  are  penned  up  like  lepers  in  special  schools,  special 
railway  carriages  and  special  hotels.''    But  " 


76 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


Just  then  that  passenger  with  the  nasal,  drawling 
voice,  whom  the  reader  will  remember  had  commented 
on  the  legislator  to  Dixon  the  first  day,  entered  the 
room.  After  greeting  the  occupants,  he  leaned  against 
the  edge  of  the  washstand  and,  with  that  freedom  usu- 
ally found  on  the  trains,  began  to  listen  to  the  conver- 
sation. 

Dixon  arose  and  courteously  offered  him  the  chair. 
"No,  thank  you,"  he  refused,  "I  will  sit  on  the  seat 
here."  Then,  after  a  short  pause,  he  asked,  "Am  I 
intruding?"  at  the  same  time  winking  at  Dixon  and 
glancing  slyly  at  the  legislator  as  if  to  say,  'T  see  he  is 
at  it  again." 

"Not  at  all,"  protested  passenger  No.  1,  who  did  not 
see  the  by-play.  Then  turning  to  Dixon,  the  newcomer 
urged,  "Go  on.    Don't  let  me  interrupt  you." 

Dixon  hesitated,  but  as  passenger  No.  1  was  looking 
expectantly  at  him,  he  resumed:  "But  do  not  infer 
from  my  remarks  that  the  average  Negro  is  hankering 
after  social  intermingling  either  actively  or  passively, 
not  even  with  other  Negroes,  where  the  desire  for  it  is 
not  mutual.  The  thinking  Negro  places  far  more  value 
on  his  social  integrity  than  his  white  brother  is  inclined 
to  think. 

"I  know  many  Negro  families  possessing  all  the  sub- 
tle refinement  to  be  found  in  the  best  white  families, 
and  many  Negroes  possessing  as  high  ideals  as  are  to  be 
found  in  any  white  man  I  have  met.  But  the  average 
white  man  knows  as  much  of  this  home  life  of  the  better 
class  of  Negroes  as  he  knows  of  the  fourth  dimension. 
A  good  many  meet  only  uneducated  Negro  porters,  and 
that  is  all,  while  a  good  many  others  associate  with  the 
lower  class  of  Negro  women  and  form  their  opinion  of 
all  Negro  women  from  that  type.  This  lack  of  knowl- 
edge is  evident  even  in  the  writings  of  all  but  a  few  of 
those  who  write  sympathetically  on  the  color  question. 
There  are  also  those  white  persons  who  resolutely  shut 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


77 


their  eyes  and  ears  to  any  progress  of  the  Negro.  These 
are  like  those  very  devout  persons  Avho,  although  believ- 
ing themselves  firm  in  their  religion,  steadfastly  refuse 
to  look  into  a  doctrine  in  any  way  contrary  to  their  own. 
But  ignore  truth  as  we  will,  like  a  mighty  glacier  it 
creeps  on,  cold  to  claims  of  color,  creed  or  clan,  grind- 
ing to  dust  the  mountains  of  wrong.  In  whatever  field 
the  Negro  has  entered  into  competition  with  the  white 
man — in  the  university,  in  the  professions,  in  the  shop, 
or  on  the  farm — he  has  held  his  owm  in  spite  of  all  the 
handicaps  peculiar  to  his  color.  If  this  is  not  a  superior- 
ity of  the  highest  order  the  whole  world  needs  to  revise 
its  idea  of  that  term.  The  great  m.ajority  of  the  Negroes 
of  my  acquaintance  do  not  wish  to  merge  the  identity  of 
their  group  into  that  of  the  white  man.  Nor  do  they 
ask  for  social  intermingling.  They  merely  Avant  to  live 
like  the  normal  citizen  of  any  country." 

"That's  what  I  say,  too,"  joined  in  passenger  No.  2, 
heartily.  ''I  stand  for  fair  treatment  to  all.  Isly  expe- 
rience is  that  if  you  treat  a  man  rightly  he  Avill  act 
rightly.  While  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  treat  him  badly, 
even  if  he  be  good,  you  will  make  a  bad  man  of  him. 
The  conduct  of  others  toward  us  is  usually  the  mirror 
of  our  own  conduct  toward  them." 

Passenger  No.  1  spoke:  ''But  social  intermingling," 
he  protested,  excitedly,  hardly  noticing  No.  2,  "would 
lead  to  intermarriage.  The  Anglo-Saxon  will  never 
stand  for  the  mongrelizing  of  his  race.  It  is  to  the  best 
interest  of  both  races  that  they  should  not  mix.  The 
marriage  of  the  black  man  and  the  white  woman  is  an 
atrocity."  Then  turning  to  No.  2,  as  by  way  of  enlist- 
ing his  sympathy,  he  added,  "Our  women  must  be  pro- 
tected. Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  white  race  no  one 
can  say  we  have  ever  failed  to  protect  our  women." 

Dixon  wondered  if  the  passenger  had  ever  read  of 
the  atrocities  of  the  Germans  in  Belgium, 

^That's  where  we  agree,"  chimed  in  passenger  No. 


78 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


2.  "While  I  believe  in  fair  play  for  the  Negro,  I  do  not 
believe  in  race  amalgamation.  The  Negro  represents  a 
less  developed  race  and  the  Caucasian  is  bound  to  lose 
by  the  blend.  It  took  many  centuries  for  the  white 
man  to  reach  his  present  status,  and  until  the  Negro 
reaches  that  status  amalgamation  will  be  detrimental  to 
the  Caucasian.  We  must  reckon  on  the  effects  of  hered- 
ity. I  agree  with  you,  too,  about  the  marriage  of  the 
Negro  to  the  white  woman,  as  except  in  rare  instances 
he  cannot  provide  for  her  as  a  white  man  could,  and  she 
must  suffer.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  one  should  not  be 
unjust  to  a  man  simply  because  he  would  not  have  him 
for  a  son-in-law.." 

Dixon  had  been  expecting  this  argument  and  had 
prepared  himself  to  meet  it.  Now  he  began :  "There  is 
a  tendency  among  persons,  otherwise  calm,  to  get  excited 
in  the  discussion  of  this  phase  of  the  color  question ;  but 
I  cannot  see  why  the  matter  cannot  be  looked  at  in  a 
calm  and  scientific  light.  Getting  excited  never  helps." 
Then,  in  calm,  almost  judicial  tones,  he  continued: 
"Now,  gentlemen,  I  find  that  this  question  of  marriage 
between  the  so-called  Negro  and  the  so-called  Caucasian, 
resolves  itself  into  seven  principal  points,  one  against, 
four  why  the  question  should  be  permitted  to  take  care 
of  itself,  and  two  in  favor  of  the  proposition.  As  I  de- 
sire truth  I  have  honestly  sought  for  other  adverse  points, 
but  I  have  been  unsuccessful.  The  point  against  it  is 
that  such  marriages  are  contrary  to  the  law  in  some 
states,  and,  well — let  us  add,  opposed  by  public  opinion 
in  all  the  states." 

Passenger  No.  2  exclaimed:  "Public  opinion!  Now 
you  have  said  it.  That  is  a  sufficient  reason  why  we 
should  not  have  intermarriage.  The  voice  of  the  people 
is  the  voice  of  God." 

"Quite  true,  sir/'  affirmed  Dixon,  softly,  "but  only 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


79 


when  the  voice  of  the  people  is  instructed ;  when  like  the 
voice  of  God  it  expresses  truth." 

Passenger  No.  2  did  not  respond. 

Dixon  continued:  "Now  let  us  examine  the  other 
reasons.    First,  like  the  " 

Just  then  Dixon  was  interrupted  by  the  entrance  of 
another  passenger,  the  travelling  companion  of  passenger 
No.  2.  Both  had  been  riding  in  the  observation  car,  but 
the  newcomer  had  stopped  to  talk  with  the  porter,  and 
No.  2  had  preceded  him. 

The  newcomer  approached  the  group.  Dixon  arose 
and  offered  him  the  chair,  but  he,  too,  refused  the  prof- 
fered seat,  and  after  leaning  for  a  few  seconds  against 
the  dental  lavatory,  sat  down  on  the  couch  between  the 
two  other  passengers. 

These  two  looked  at  Dixon  as  though  expecting  him 
to  continue,  but  as  he  did  not.  No.  2  asked  him  what 
were  his  reasons  in  favor  of  intermarriage,  at  the  same 
time  explaining  the  circumstances  to  passenger  No.  3. 
Upon  the  latter's  allowing  his  interest  in  the  matter, 
Dixon  continued : 

"As  I  was  saying,  first,  like  the  Negro  haters,  we'll 
go  to  the  Bible.  Is  such  a  marriage  wrong  theologic- 
ally? No,  for  God  struck  Miriam  with  leprosy  for  object- 
ing to  Moses'  Ethiopian  wife,  and  Joseph  married  an 
Egyptian  woman.  Second,  is  it  harmful  biologically? 
No,  for  it  is  possible  to  produce  healthy  offspring  by  a 
union  of  the  highest  type  of  the  most  cultured  variety 
and  the  lowest  type  of  the  most  benighted.  Some  of  the 
finest  types,  mentally  and  physically,  have  been  produced 
by  crossing  dissimilar  varieties  of  mankind,  as  Coleridge- 
Taylor,  one  of  England's  greatest  musicians ;  Frederick 
Douglass,  Booker  T.  Washington,  General  Dumas  and 
others. 

"Third  is  it  wrong  ethically?  Quite  to  the  contrary, 
for  our  laws  forbid  immorality.  Here  is  where  the  laws 
themselves   conflict.    One   of  the   least   defensible  of 


80 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


laws,"  says  Viscount  Bryce  in  his  "American  Common- 
wealth." 

"Fourth,  the  right  to  select  one's  mate  is  the  most 
sacred  of  individual  rights,  and  when  the  state  inter- 
feres in  this,  except  in  the  case  of  the  physically  unfit,  it 
but  adds  humor  to  the  witticism,  'This  is  a  free  coun- 
try/ " 

The  rattle  of  a  freight  train  bound  in  the  opposite 
direction  made  it  impossible  for  Dixon  to  continue. 
When  it  had  gone  by,  the  three  passengers  looked  at 
him  to  continue,  so  he  resumed :  "The  two  reasons 
in  favor  of  the  so-called  intermarriage  are :  First,  it  is 
beneficial  sociologically.  As  the  color  of  the  mulatto  is 
generally  more  pleasing  to  the  whites  and  also  to  the 
full-blooded  Negro,  the  problem  is  lessened.  Mr.  Roose- 
velt, in  his  article  on  Brazil,  says  that  a  prominent  Bra- 
zilian pointed  out  to  him  that  the  danger  of  color  fric- 
tion in  Brazil  had  been  decreased  by  that  country's  pol- 
icy of  fusion,  whereas  in  the  United  States  color  dis- 
agreements are  more  likely  to  increase. 

"Second,  and  most  important  of  all :  the  honor  and 
dignity  of  the  Republic  demands  a  cessation  of  the  dis- 
honorable relations  that  have  existed  for  nearly  three 
hundred  years  between  white  men  and  Negro  women." 

"Amalgamation  leads  to  degeneracy,"  exclaimed  pass- 
enger No.  1,  with  determination.  "The  mulatto  is  the 
inferior  of  both  races,  because  he  inherits  the  bad  quali- 
ties of  both." 

"No,"  dissented  No.  2,  bending  over  to  catch  the  eye 
of  No.  1,  "that's  impossible.  How  could  it  be  possible 
for  the  mulatto  to  inherit  the  bad  qualities  of  both  races. 
He  is  inferior  only  in  logevity.  I  have  seen  aged  white 
men  and  aged  Negroes,  but  never  an  aged  mulatto.  Will 
you  please  explain  why  the  mulatto  should  inherit  the 
bad  qualities  of  both  races?" 

And  the  discussion  went  on  for  some  little  time  be- 
tween the  two  men,  while  Dixon  and  passenger  No.  3 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


81 


listened  interestedly.  "Here's  where  the  doctors  dis- 
agree," laughed  Dixon  to  himself. 

Dixon  took  advantage  of  a  short  lull  to  refer  them  to 
the  following  quotation  from  V on  Luschan :  ''We  are 
absolutely  ignorant  as  regards  the  moral  and  intellectual 
qualities  of  the  half  castes."  He  also  added,  ''Mr.  Roose- 
velt says,  'There  is  nothing  of  the  mongrel  about  the 
aspect  of  the  Brazilian.'  And  would  you  care  to  hear 
what  Finot  has  to  say  on  the  subject?" 

Both  assented. 

Dixon  had  placed  the  book  on  the  long  seat,  and  pass- 
enger No.  3,  in  sitting  down,  had  taken  it  up  and  was 
now  looking  at  it.  Dixon  borrowed  it  from  him,  and, 
having  found  the  place,  began:  "Cross-breeding  among 
the  most  differentiated  races,  far  from  being  sterile,  adds 
to  their  fecundity.  According  to  Le  Valliant,  a  Hotten- 
tot woman,  who  generally  gives  birth  to  three  or  four 
children,  will  have  as  many  as  ten  or  twelve  when  united 
to  a  white  man  or  Negro.  The  crossing  of  Negroes  with 
white  women  or  white  men  with  Negro  women  produces 
similar  results.  Cross-breeding  has  in  no  sense  the  sorry 
privileges  of  physical  degeneracy  nor  that  of  bringing 
peoples  to  final  ruin.  Where  did  Tylor  find  the  most 
beautiful  women  in  the  world?  At  Tristan  d'Acuna 
(a  little  island  between  the  Cape  and  South  America), 
among  the  descendants  of  whites  and  Negroes.  . 
'Among  the  young  girls  were  some  with  such  entirely 
beautiful  heads  that  I  never  remember  having  seen  any- 
thing so  splendid.  .  .  .  And  yet  I  am  familiar  with  all 
the  strands  of  the  earth.' 

"Another  important  point  to  be  noted  is  that  our 
physiques  conform  to  climatic  environment,  and  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Negro  is  similar  to  that  of  the  native 
whites,  with  the  Negro  possessing  a  better  circulatory 
system  and  sounder  tissue." 

"But  the  Negro,"  objected  No.  2,  "is  far  more  subject 
to  tuberculosis  of  the  lungs  than  the  Caucasian." 


82 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


"And  the  Indian,  the  aborigine,  is  still  more  so  than 
the  Negro,"  replied  Dixon.  "The  Bureau  of  American 
Ethnology  gives  for  the  year  1907-08,  7.9  per  thousand 
deaths  among  the  Indian  from  this  disease,  while  the 
Negro  had  4  and  the  Caucasian  1.7.  This  disease  is 
probably  as  prevalent  among  the  poorer  class  of  whites. 
According  to  the  Chicago  Herald,  March  26,  1917,  a 
health  commissioner  found  300  cases  in  one  white  tene- 
ment block  in  Chicago.  The  white  plague,  like  syphilis, 
is  a  white  man's  disease.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  he  in- 
troduced both  these  in  the  New  World,  but  his  superior 
wealth  enables  him  to  better  combat  consumption." 

"You  say  syphilis  is  a  white  man's  disease?"  ques- 
tioned No.  2,  doubtingly. 

"So  far  as  it  is  known,"  replied  Dixon,  "it  originated 
with  the  Caucasian.  Prof.  Eliot  Smith  examined  10,000 
skeletons  of  ancient  Egypt  without  finding  any  trace  of 
it,  and  Dr.  Ales  Hrdlicka  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute 
reports  similarly  of  the  Pre-Columbian  Indian.  Syphilis 
first  came  into  notice  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  there  was  an  epidemic  of  it  in  Spain  and 
Italy." 

"But  what  about  heredity,  that  most  important  of 
all  points  to  be  considered  in  the  crossing  of  animals, 
human  or  otherwise?"  continued  No.  2. 

"A  most  important  question,  sir,"  concurred  Dixon, 
"but  one  that  has  been  sadly  neglected  in  this  country, 
as  witness  the  welcome  extended  to  all  types  of  Euro- 
pean immigrants,  nearly  all  of  whom,  with  the  exception 
of  the  German  and  possibly  the  English  and  French, 
have  always  lived  far  below  the  economic  level  of  the 
American  Negro.  The  American  Negro  has  a  more 
intelligent  and  better-fed  appearance  than  the  average 
immigrant  one  sees  at  Ellis  Island,  the  Barge  Office,  or 
in  the  steerage  of  trans-Atlantic  liners.  The  percentage 
of  paupers  among  foreign-born  whites  is  almost  four 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


83 


times  that  of  the  Negro.  The  figures,  according  to  the 
census  of  1910  are  248.2  and  63.9  per  100,000  respectively. 
The  Negro  is  also  twice  as  literate  as  the  European  Rus- 
sian, and  more  literate  than  the  Italian,  Bulgarian, 
Greek,  Portuguese,  Spaniard,  Roumanian  and  Servian 
of  Europe." 

"Anyway,"  said  No.  2,  with  an  air  of  finality,  'T  be- 
lieve that  everyone  should  marry  his  own  color.  It 
doesn't  look  good  to  see  a  mixed  couple." 

Passenger  No.  3,  who  had  hitherto  kept  silent,  now 
spoke. 

"It  is  not  a  matter  of  whether  it  looks  good,"  he  pro- 
tested, "but  whether  it  is  right  or  wrong.  Intermar- 
riage, as  the  porter  has  shown  us,  is  a  crime  against 
neither  Nature  nor  Nature's  God.  Physical  affinity  has 
ever  been  the  principal  motive  in  the  mating  of  human 
beings,  often  regardless  of  racial  differences.  Nature,  in 
her  selective  principle,  knows  no  race  difference.  Ignore 
it  as  you  will,  the  fact  remains  that  there  are  a  great 
many  whites  of  both  sexes  v\^ho  find  their  affinities  among 
Negroes,  also  many  Negroes  of  both  sexes  who  find 
theirs  among  the  whites.  From  my  observations, 
which  I  flatter  myself  are  somewhat  extensive,  I  see  that 
Nature,  in  this  respect,  simply  refuses  to  submit  to  laws 
or  to  conventionalities.  The  vilifying  of  either  race  in 
question  w411  not  help,  since  love  is  illogical.  Now,  as  a 
rule,  these  persons  while  meeting,  often  clandestinely, 
get  into  the  habit  of  shunning  marriage  even  where  it  is 
permissible.  These  restrictions  also  give  many  persons 
a  very  convenient  excuse  for  leading  a  double  life,  since, 
even  while  they  might  find  their  affinity  in  one  of  the 
other  race,  they  are  conventionally  bound  to  marry  in 
their  own  race.  This  artificial  condition,  then,  is  respon- 
sible for  a  great  amount  of  double  dealing,  especially  on 
our  part.  Now,  since  intermarriage  does  not  mean  a 
forcible  and  promiscuous  marrying  of  persons,  but  pro- 
ceeds from  personal  selection,  I  should  think  this  mat- 


84 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


ter  revolves  on  the  query,  'Shall  such  persons  be  encour- 
aged to  live  wedded  or  forced  to  live  unwedded?'" 

Dixon  looked  at  this  man  with  amazement  on  his 
face,  the  more  so  as  he  knew  the  speaker  to  be  a  South- 
erner. 

No.  1  challenged  him  instantly. 

"You  say  you  are  in  favor  of  intermarriage,"  he 
snapped.  "Tell  me,  would  you  have  your  daughter 
marry  a  Negro?" 

"Yes,"  came  the  unhesitating  response.  "If  he  ful- 
filled my  ideals  of  what  a  son-in-law  ought  to  be  I  would 
raise  no  objection.  And  with  regard  to  amalgamation, 
it  strikes  me  that  this  talk  is  just  a  couple  of  centuries 
late.  The  fact  is  that  we  have  been  having  amalgama- 
tion all  the  time,  and  although  under  unfavorable  and  dis- 
graceful conditions,  good  rather  than  evil  has  been  the 
result.  And  with  regard  to  what  you  say  about  mon- 
grels, I  went  to  a  gathering  of  colored  persons  recently 
and  out  of  several  hundred  present  I  saw  but  twenty-one 
full-blooded  Negroes.  And  these  persons  all  looked 
healthy  and  intelligent.  I  think  that  in  view  of  the  little 
*  or  no  protest  against  illegal  relations,  and  the  strenuous 
objections  to  legal  ones,  that  the  cynically  inclined  would 
be  justified  in  saying  that  the  principal  objection  to  inter- 
marriage is  the  legalizing  of  the  union." 

Passenger  No.  2  commented:  "One  thing  is  sure: 
this  mixture  does  not  afifect  the  racial  integrity  of  the 
white  man." 

"Why?"  asked  Dixon,  much  emboldened  by  his  unex- 
pected ally. 

"Because  all  mixed  bloods  are  classed  as  Negroes," 
was  the  quick  response. 

"Not  all,"  retorted  Dixon.  "Intermarriage  of  black 
and  white  has  been  going  steadily  on  for  over  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years,  so  much  so  that  there  is  no  stratum 
of  American  society  in  which  you  will  not  find  persons 
of  Negro  strain.    And  far  more  than  you  think.    I  have 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


85 


heard  it  estimated  at  60  per  cent  of  the  native  whites. 
The  American  Anglo-Saxon,  composed  of  Slavs,  Latins, 
Jews,  Iranians,  Teutons,  Magyars,  Celts,  Indians,  Mon- 
golians and  a  small  percentage  of  English,  has,  too,  a 
considerable  percentage  of  Negro  strain.  I  have  a  col- 
ored friend  who  is  really  more  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  by 
birth  than  many  so-called  Anglo-Saxons  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  as  his  paternal  grandfather  and  his  mother 
are  English.  This  talk  of  racial  purity  and  racial  integ- 
rity when  asserted  by  any  people  living  in  the  New 
World  is  pathetic.  Look  at  the  number  of  white  per- 
sons with  distinctly  Negroid  features.  A  little  more  pig- 
ment in  their  skins  would  make  a  radical  change  in  their 
lives.  And  you  can't  tell  the  whites  from  some  of  the 
so-called  Negroes.  Dr.  Kintzung  is  responsible  for  the 
statement  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell  persons  who  have 
an  attenuated  strain  of  Negro  blood.  And  Finot  says 
that  one  can  distinguish  them  only  in  American  novels. 
Time  and  again  persons  hitherto  thought  white  are 
proved  to  be  of  Negro  descent.  The  great  Alexander 
Hamilton,  for  example.  Then  take  the  case  of  Henry 
Timrod,  the  poet,  in  whose  honor  there  is  a  statue  in  the 
City  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  Timrod,  unknown  to  his  ad- 
mirers, was  a  Negro." 

Passenger  No.  1  did  not  relish  this  shattering  of  his 
most  sacred  idol.  He  felt  that  he  ought  to  enter  a  pro- 
test, so  he  said  with  all  the  spirit  at  his  command:  "In 
your  advocacy  of  intermarriage  you  are  forgetting  the 
inherent  incompatibility  between  the  races.    I  " 

"Incompatibility  between  the  races?"  dominated  pas- 
senger No.  3.  "Do  you  believe  in  the  Fatherhood  of 
God?" 

"Yes." 

"Do  you  believe,  then,  that  the  God  who  said,  'Love 
one  another,'  would  create  hate  in  the  heart  of  one  race 
for  another?  No;  whatever  dislike  exists  between  the 
races  has  been  caused  solely  by  training." 


86 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


Dixon  supported  him :  "In  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
white  man,  of  his  own  volition,  has  mixed  with  the 
black  more  than  with  any  other  variety,  and  that  the 
exotic  black  is  attracted  rather  than  repelled  by  the 
white,  one  would  be  justified  in  saying  that  we  have 
color  attraction  rather  than  color  repulsion." 

He  took  out  his  note  book,  and  after  finding  the  de- 
sired passage,  said:  "Here  is  a  quotation  from  'The 
Sexual  Life  of  Our  Times,'  by  Iwan  Bloch,  page  614: 
'White  men  from  very  early  times  have  had  a  peculiar 
weakness  for  Negresses  and  mulatto  girls  and  women. 

"  'The  European  newspapers  are  full  of  interesting  re- 
ports of  the  powerful  attractive  force  exercised  by  exotic 
individuals,  male  or  female,  such  as  Negroes,  Arabs, 
Abyssinians,  Moors,  Indians,  Japanese,  etc.,  upon 
European  men  and  women  respectively.  Whenever 
members  of  such  races  come  to  stay  in  any  European 
capital,  we  hear  of  remarkable  love  affairs  between  the 
white  girls  and  these  strangers. 

"  'The  colored  girl  exercises  a  powerful  attractive  force 
upon  the  American  man  and  even  the  proud  American 
woman  manifests  with  an  especial  frequency  in  Chi- 
cago a  certain  preference  for  the  male  Negro.  But  much 
greater  is  the  alluring  force  exercised  by  the  white  upon 
the  Negro.'  " 

"All  of  which  shows  how  very  unnatural  our  segrega- 
tion laws  are,"  commented  No.  3,  at  the  same  time  ask- 
ing Dixon  the  name  of  the  book  and  noting  it  in  his 
memorandum.  He  then  continued :  "I  will  tell  you  of 
an  incident  I  thougdit  interesting:  I  was  in  London  at 
the  time  of  King  Edward's  coronation.  To  the  event 
came  many  Africans,  jet  black  and  of  superb  physiques, 
and  the  manner  in  which  these  men  were  petted  and 
feted  by  women,  even  of  the  better  class — many  of  whom 
had  seen  a  black  face  for  the  first  time — gave  me  food 
for  much  reflection  as  well  as  recalled  that  passage  in 
Shakespeare,  'Black  men  are  pearls  in  beauteous  ladies 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


87 


eyes.'  I  saw,  too,  recently,  where  an  American  news- 
paper correspondent  in  Paris  expressed  her  disgust  at 
the  reception  given  to  the  Senegalese  by  the  Parisiennes." 

Passengers  No.  1  and  2  did  not  respond. 

Dixon  said,  ''Quite  recently  a  Chicago  newspaper  in 
its  crusade  against  cabarets  advertised  the  fact  that  in 
certain  ones  conducted  by  Negroes  there  was  no  color 
line,  and  now  the  majority  of  patrons  are  whites  of 
both  sexes.  In  Salt  Lake  City,  where  intermarriage  is 
illegal,  I  found  that  the  women  who  visited  the  colored 
clubs  were  all  white.  When  I  inquired  as  to  the  absence 
of  colored  women  I  was  informed  that  the  white  men 
had  appropriated  them.  In  one  of  these  places  I  saw 
eight  women,  five  of  whom  were  Southern.  The  keeper 
of  one  of  these  places  remarked  to  me  that  he  would 
not  advise  a  colored  man  to  bring  his  wife  to  live  in  that 
town  lest  she  too  might  be  appropriated.  I  did,  how- 
ever, find  some  decent  colored  wives.  I  also  found  in 
the  same  city  an  ultra-private  colored  club  where  the 
better  class  of  white  women  visited.  I  found  similar 
relations  existing  between  black  and  white  in  Seattle, 
Portland,  Oregon,  Calgary,  Winnipeg,  Milwaukee  and 
other  western  towns.  In  many  of  the  towns  of  Ari- 
zona, Montana  and  Nevada,  the  colored  women,  who 
were  usually  of  a  very  low  type,  had  nearly  all  gone 
over  to  the  white  men.  All  through  the  cities  of  the 
South  I  saw  and  heard  of  houses  of  infamy  whose  occu- 
pants were  colored  women,  and  whose  patronage  was 
white.  Similar  conditions  exist  all  over  the  country.  In 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  for  instance,  I  found  a  colored  club  fre- 
quented by  white  women  and  whose  keeper  was  a  white 
man.  In  Chicago  there  are  scores  of  resorts  where  Ne- 
groes meet  white  women,  and  white  men  meet  Negro 
women.  The  sexual  relations  between  black  and  white, 
whether  they  exist  in  Boston,  New  Orleans  or  San  Fran- 
cisco, are  one  of  chronic  immorality." 

No  protest  from  the  opposing  side. 


88 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


Dixon  continued:  *'But,  if  there  be  inherent  incom- 
patibility between  these  groups,  why  have  anti-misceg- 
enation laws?  If  there  be  a  great  gulf  fixed,  why  make 
segregation  laws?  A  law  prohibiting  marriage  on  ac- 
count of  color  is  unnatural,  immoral  and  stupid,  and  a 
monument  to  the  asininity  of  those  who  make  it.  Hos- 
tile to  nature,  such  a  law  will  not  avail.  In  states  where 
this  law  is  in  force  I  have  noticed  only  a  greater  im- 
morality. In  the  South  white  men  have  marked  certain 
Negresses  as  their  own,  and  the  Negro  who  will  attempt 
to  take  them  away  is  in  danger  of  his  life.  One  hears 
from  time  to  time  of  Negroes  being  killed  by  white 
men  on  account  of  Negro  women.  This  is  axiom- 
atic :  Forbid  a  human  being  anything  and  you  at  once 
create  a  desire  in  him  for  it.  Tobacco  became  popular 
largely  because  of  the  severe  laws  prohibiting  its  use. 
A  follower  of  Mohammed  was  once  asked  that  prophet's 
reason  for  forbidding  the  use  of  wine  to  his  adherents 
and  his  reply  was,  'So  that  they  might  enjoy  it  all  the 
more.'  In  the  past  the  very  best  blood  of  this  country 
has  mingled  with  Negro  blood  and  is  still  doing  it  in 
spite  of  all  laws  or  conventionalities  against  it.  It  is 
human  nature  and  you  can't  stop  it." 

"But,"  protested  No.  2,  "the  black  man  is  always 
more  willing  to  marry  the  white  woman  than  the  white 
man  is  to  marry  the  black  woman.    Why  so?" 

"That  brings  us  to  the  real  reason  for  these  laws," 
said  Dixon,  "the  prevention  of  the  Negro  man  from  par- 
ticipation in  the  mixing.  These  laws  also,  by  accident 
or  design,  leave  the  weaker  people  at  the  mercy  of  the 
stronger.  Not  long  since  I  heard  of  a  case  in  California 
where  a  sixteen-year-old  Negro  girl  was  wronged  by  a 
policeman,  and  under  the  California  anti-marriage  law, 
she  had  no  protection.  A  good  many  Southern  whites 
consider  the  comely  Negro  lass  their  legitimate  prey. 
But  in  view  of  the  great  amount  of  mixture  done  and 
being  done  by  the  whites  and  the  small  amount  of  mar- 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


89 


riages  contracted  by  them,  doesn't  it  appear  a  greater 
honor  and  morality  on  the  part  of  the  Negro  that  he 
should  desire  to  have  his  children  born  in  wedlock?" 

"That's  true,"  conceded  passenger  No.  2.  ''The  white 
man,  even  while  protesting  against  amalgamation,  is 
really  practicing  it." 

Passenger  No.  3  added :  "What's  more,  he  has  never 
been  in  a  country,  however  savage,  in  w^hich  he  did  not 
mix  his  blood  with  that  of  the  natives.  The  white 
man  has  spoiled  the  morals  of  every  weak  race  with 
which  he  has  come  in  contact." 

But  it  is  only  white  women  of  the  abandoned  class 
who  marry  Negroes,"  protested  passenger  No.  1. 

"That  is  the  current  belief,"  said  Dixon,  "but  it  is 
wrong  in  the  majority  of  cases.  I  have  spent  some  time 
investigating  the  matter  and  I  have  found  that  the  ma- 
jority of  these  women  are  no  different  from  the  ordinary 
respectable  woman.  Many  of  them  have  fine,  well-kept 
homes,  well-regulated  families,  and  live  as  happily  as  the 
Caucasian  problem  will  permit  them. 

"And  with  reference  to  the  abandoned  white  women 
who  marry  Negroes :  their  reason  for  doing  so  is  that 
they  find  in  the  Negro  that  which  their  own  people 
refused  them — that  lack  in  their  lives  which  made  them 
outcasts — genuine  human  sympathy." 

"Another  point,"  persisted  passenger  No.  1.  "we 
must  take  atavism  into  consideration.  If  either  parent 
has  a  drop  of  Negro  blood  the  child  is  liable  to  be  born 
coal-black,  and  with  regular  Negro  features." 

"Well,"  returned  No.  3,  "I  will  believe  that  only 
when  I  see  an  apparently  full-blooded  Negro  couple,  one 
of  whom  has  a  drop  of  Caucasian  blood,  produce  a  pure 
Caucasian  child.  Atavism  ought  to  work  both  ways. 
That,  my  friend,  is  only  a  scheme  of  the  novelist  to 
appeal  to  a  prejudiced  public." 

Dixon  supported  him:  "Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson,  the 
famous  physician-author,  in  the  'Chicago  Examiner'  of 


90 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


April  10,  1916,  proves  this  theory  to  be  false.  But  if 
the  child  were  born  black,  what  of  that?  Hasn't  it  a 
human  soul?" 

"Passenger  No.  3  added:  ''In  view  of  these  two 
facts :  first,  that  intermarriage  is  contrary  neither  to  the 
laws  of  God  nor  of  Nature;  second,  that  persons  who 
have  an  affinity  with  each  other  are  going  to  meet  in 
spite  of  all  laws,  it  is  evident,  unless  we  admit  our  igno- 
rance, that  the  sole  purpose  and  effect  of  these  restric- 
tions are  the  upholding  of  racial  vanity,  even  to  the  det- 
riment of  morality." 

At  this  juncture,  Dixon  asked  to  be  excused,  saying 
that  he  had  to  wake  a  passenger  for  the  next  station. 


THIRD  DAY. 

"Oh,  give  me  liberty, 
For  were  even  a  paradise  itself  my  prison 
Still  I  should  long  to  leap  those  crystal  walls." 

— Dryden. 

The  next  day  at  noon  Dixon  was  sitting  in  an  end 
seat  looking  out  on  the  snow-covered  waste,  when  pass- 
enger No.  3  approached  and,  sitting  opposite  him,  ques- 
tioned: 

"Did  I  understand  you  to  say  you  have  been  in  South 
America?"  And  the  other,  who  had  also  travelled  in 
South  America,  engaged  him  in  a  conversation  about 
Argentina.  The  talk  gradually  led  to  a  consideration  of 
the  conditions  among  the  Negroes  in  the  South.  Among 
other  things  that  the  passenger  said  was :  "I  am  a 
Southerner,  but  I  am  very  much  opposed  to  the  South's 
treatment  of  the  Negro.  The  South  needs  badly  an 
infusion  of  new  ideas.  At  present  it  is  like  an  ancestral 
mansion,  whose  occupants,  sitting  behind  shuttered  win- 
dows which  barely  admit  the  sunlight,  are  still  basking 
in  the  reflection  of  the  dubious  glory  of  past  days.  How 
I  wish  that  my  beloved  Southland  would  throw  open  the 


PROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


91 


windows  of  its  soul  and  let  in  the  rejuvenating  sunlight 
of  Truth. 

''And  the  South  will  never  rise  higher  than  the  Negro. 
Black  and  white  in  the  South  are,  to  a  great  extent,  like 
the  Siamese  Twins,  who,  while  they  were  physiologic- 
ally distinct  beings,  were  so  joined  that  one  of  the  twins 
could  not  harm  the  other  without  harming  himself,  or 
benefit  the  other  without  benefiting  himself." 

Dixon  then  took  occasion  to  compliment  him  on  his 
broadmindedness. 

"Well,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "I  have  found  truth  the 
only  thing  worth  living  for.  But  there  is  a  hard  strug- 
gle to  obtain  it.  As  a  rule,  we  don't  like  to  hear  that 
which  doesn't  fit  in  with  our  ideas.  I  find  that  my  mind, 
when  it  comes  to  unpleasant  truths,  is  like  a  horse  which 
shies  at  the  sight  of  strange  objects.  By  constant  use 
of  the  spur,  Reason,  however,  I  force  my  intellect  to 
accustom  itself  to  strange  truths — to  overcome  prejudice 
— and  so  I  go  on  finding  each  new  truth  easier  to  accept. 

"Many  of  our  most  prominent  men,  leaders  of 
thought,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "are  conspicuously  weak- 
kneed  in  this  matter  of  color.  They  fear  public  opinion. 
By  a  good  many  of  my  people  I  am  regarded  as  a  freak. 
Some  even  say  I  must  have  Negro  blood.  But  I  would 
rather  be  anything  else  than  a  coward,  for  I  agree  with 
DeFoe  when  he  says,  'He  that  hath  truth  on  his  side  is  a 
fool  as  well  as  a  coward  if  he  is  afraid  to  own  it  because 
of  the  currency  or  multitude  of  men's  opinion.'  " 

'T  owe  a  great  deal  to  my  Negro  mammy,"  he  con- 
tinued. "I  shall  never  forget  her  tender  solicitude  for 
my  mother  and  me  during  the  terrible  times  of  the  Civil 
War,  and  her  noble,  forgiving  Christian  character.  More 
than  any  other  agency,  that  of  my  parents  not  excepted, 
she  has  been  a  power  for  molding  my  character  for  good. 
My  people  say  that  the  Negro  is  a  hindrance  to  their 
progress.  Yes,  because  of  themselves  he  is.  Thoughts 
of  the  Negro  predominate  in  the  mind  of  the  South  to- 


92 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


day,  and  since  that  which  dwells  uppermost  in  our  mind 
really  dominates  us,  the  South,  largely  through  its  own 
fault,  actually  has  what  it  dreads  most — Negro  domina- 
tion.   And  ah,  how  different  things  could  be !" 

Both  men  exchanged  views  for  some  time,  and  the 
passenger,  before  leaving  for  lunch,  concluded:  "This 
Republic  in  its  treatment  of  the  Negro  would  do  well 
to  imitate  the  humble  oyster,  who,  when  a  grit  or  worm 
or  whatever  it  is  gets  into  his  shell,  does  not  make  a 
fuss,  but  quietly  makes  the  irritant  into  a  pearl.  And 
believe  me,"  he  continued  in  a  voice  so  kindly,  so  full  of 
his  creed  of  right  doing  that  it  affected  Dixon's  inner- 
most being  and  stamped  its  sincerity  on  his  soul,  "no 
race  so  possesses  the  qualities  for  conversion  into  human 
pearls  as  the  Negro — kindly,  sunny,  faithful.'' 

That  night,  while  Dixon  was  cleaning  the  cuspidors, 
passenger  No.  1  came  in  with  a  newspaper.  After  read- 
ing for  a  few  minutes,  he  inquired :  "Dixon,  I  have  been 
wondering  why  a  man  of  your  intellect  should  stay  in  a 
job  like  this?"  He  knew  the  reason  only  too  well,  but 
he  had  become  interested  now,  and  simply  wanted  to 
hear  the  other's  views. 

Dixon  suspended  the  cleaning  of  the  cuspidors  to  tell 
him  what  the  reader  already  knows.  To  this  he  added: 
"I  recently  took  an  examination  for  a  position  as  secre- 
tary in  the  United  States  Consular  Service."  Then  he 
added,  laughingly :  "But  as  I  had  to  submit  a  photo- 
graph of  myself,  I  shall  be  much  surprised  if  I  ever  get 
an  appointment." 

"Have  you  ever  thought  of  returning  to  Europe?" 

"Yes,  or  to  South  America,  but  on  second  thought  I 
have  decided  to  remain.  Sometimes  I  feel  as  if  I  am 
experiencing  too  much  of  the  acid  of  color  prejudice  to 
keep  my  temper  sweet.  But,"  he  added,  with  his  teeth 
set  hard,  "this  is  my  country,  mine  as  much  as  any  other 
American.  My  great-great-grandfather  died  in  defense 
of  the  flag  at  the  Battle  of  Rhode  Island,  August  29, 


FROM    SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


93 


1778;  my  great-grandfather  fought  at  Lake  Erie  in  1812; 
my  grandfather  fought  at  Shiloh.  and  I  myself  have  had 
the  honor  of  seeing  a  httle  active  service.  I  am  an 
American — a  plain  American — in  spite  of  all  the  attempts 
to  hyphenate  me.  I  am  going  to  fight  it  out  here.  Xo 
one  shall  make  me  run.'' 

There  was  a  brief  period  of  silence,  which  was 
broken  by  the  passenger.  '''Yet,  there  are  many  Xegroes 
who  really  hold  good  positions/''  and  he  went  on  to  relate 
some  instances  he  knew  of. 

"Yes,  there  are  a  good  many  Xegroes  who  hold  fairly 
prominent  positions,"  affirmed  Dixon,  ''but  since  preju- 
dice is  an  enemy  that  will  not  come  out  in  the  open 
and  fight  fairly,  it  is  more  often  a  matter  of  chance  that 
such  get  these  often  well-merited  positions.  Color  ego- 
tism thus  diverting  valuable  talent  into  lines  of  employ- 
ment that  could  be  filled  by  less  capable  persons  is  a 
bad  economic  factor.  A  vast  amount  of  X^egro  talent 
goes  to  absolute  waste.  This  woefully  short-sighted 
policy  results  in  a  direct  loss  to  the  nation." 

'"But  so  many  X^egroes  are  without  any  ambition  at 
all,'"'  said  the  passenger.  "'In  all  the  large  Xorthern 
cities  in  which  I  have  been,  it  seemed  to  me  as  if  the 
proportion  of  Xegroes  hanging  around  pool  rooms  and 
saloons  was  far  in  excess  of  those  whites  doins:  the  same 
thing," 

'T  am  inclined  to  believe  so,  too,"  concurred  Dixon, 
"but  consider  the  bad  example  these  have.  The  edu- 
cated and  more  ambitious  X^egro  is  very  often  forced 
into  competition  with  his  uneducated  brother,  who,  see- 
ing the  former  faring  no  better  than  he,  sometimes 
bossed  by  a  man  whose  chief  asset  is  his  complexion,  has 
no  incentive  to  acquire  an  education.    Only  today  at 

the  dinner  table  I  heard.  ''Whaf's  the  use?    AV  has  a 

good  education,  and  he  is  doing  the  same  porter  work  as 
L'  X'ow,  really,  can  3'ou  blame  such  for  this  Omar 
Khayyamish  outlook?  What  incentive  have  they?  Some 


94 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


will  say  that  these  men  have  little  or  no  ambition  to 
begin  with.  Perhaps  so.  But  the  duty  we  owe  to  our 
fellows  is  to  encourage  them,  to  fan  every  spark  of  ambi- 
tion, not  to  throw  obstacles  in  their  way.  The  aspiring 
Negro  is  severely  handicapped  in  his  desire  to  accom- 
plish anything.  He  has  to  wrestle  so  long  and  so  hard 
with  color  prejudice  that  a  vast  portion  of  his  energy 
is  lost.  Take  the  case  of  a  poor  Negro  at  a  university. 
While  his  white  fellow-students  can  secure  any  position 
for  which  they  are  eligible,  he  has  to  depend  on  the 
whim  of  someone  for  employment.  Even  the  meanest 
jobs  are  sometimes  refused  him.  As  a  student  I  was 
once  refused  a  job  of  taking  out  soiled  dishes  in  ex- 
change for  my  meals  on  account  of  color.  It  is  truly 
disheartening  to  see  Negro  youths  being  graduated  from 
our  high  schools  and  colleges  to  find  the  door  of  oppor- 
tunity closed  to  them.  As  an  instance,  take  Chicago. 
The  Negro  in  Chicago,  from  my  observations,  is  better 
treated  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  country;  and  more 
Negroes  occupy  responsible  positions  there  than  any- 
where else.  Yet  the  disadvantages  the  colored  people 
suffer  in  Chicago,  as  reported  by  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association,  are  unbelievable." 

The  bell  rang  and  Dixon  went  in  to  answer  the  call. 

On  his  return,  he  said :  "Here  is  a  clipping  I  had  in 
my  grip.  It  is  from  the  'Chicago  Tribune'  and  deals 
with  the  employment  of  Negroes  in  Chicago." 

He  handed  it  to  the  passenger,  who  began  to  read,  "In 
the  business  world — speaking  generally — the  discrimina- 
tion against  the  Ngero  is  even  greater.  It  grows  more  and 
more  difficult  for  a  colored  man  or  woman  to  get  work  ex- 
cept as  a  laborer  or  servant,  and  even  in  those  directions 
there  are  serious  difficulties.  As  salespeople,  office  clerks 
and  stenographers  there  is  almost  no  opportunity  for  Ne- 
groes in  Chicago.  With  one  exception  the  big  business  col- 
leges discriminate  against  colored  students.    There  is 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


95 


small  encouragement  for  them  to  take  training  and  tech- 
nical courses  in  public  schools.  One  bright  colored  boy 
who  graduated  from  a  technical  school  this  year  was 
sent  with  his  classmates  to  the  employment  office  of  a 
big  corporation.  'We  don't  hire  niggers,'  said  the  man 
in  charge." 

A  child's  cry  was  now  heard  in  the  body  of  the  car. 
Dixon,  asking  to  be  excused,  rose  hastily  and  hurried  in. 

A  few  minutes  later  he  returned,  bringing  a  baby 
about  two  years  old. 

''His  mamma  is  indisposed,"  explained  Dixon. 

The  youngster,  riding  on  Dixon's  knee  and  being 
tickled  by  the  passenger,  was  now  crowing  with  delight 
and  tossing  his  arms  in  the  air.  Dixon,  by  tossing  him 
and  riding  him  around  on  his  shoulders  for  the  past  two 
days,  had  been  spoiling  him,  and  more  thao  once  he 
had  refused  to  return  to  his  mother. 

After  a  while  the  baby  became  sleepy,  and  nestling 
back  in  Dixon's  arms,  soon  fell  asleep. 

Shortly  afterwards  the  passenger  resumed  his  read- 
ing of  the  newspaper  clipping.  "Out  of  nearly  4,000  men 
employed  by  the  express  companies  in  Chicago,  only 
twenty-one  are  colored  men,  and  fifteen  of  that  number 
work  as  porters.  There  are  apparently  none  at  all  em- 
ployed as  boot  and  shoe  hands,  glovemakers,  bindery 
workers,  printers,  neckwear  and  suspender  workers  or 
on  the  elevated  roads.  A  good  many  labor  unions  admit 
colored  men  to  membership,  but  these  complain  that 
they  are  discriminated  against,  at  least  in  the  more  dif- 
ficult and  better-paid  trades,  when  it  comes  to  getting 
work. 

"The  result  is  that  the  mass  of  Negroes  are  forced 
to  seek,  in  increasing  numbers,  the  less  desirable  and 
poorly-paid  occupations.  More  Negro  men  —  nearly 
8,000  in  all — work  as  porters  and  bar  helpers  in  saloons 
and  poolrooms  than  in  any  other  field." 


96 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


The  passenger  made  no  comment.  After  a  few  min- 
utes' thought  he  demanded: 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  education  of  the  Negro?" 

Dixon  thought  the  question  vague,  but  answered :  "I 
do  not  think  it  ought  to  differ  from  that  of  any  other 
color  of  mankind.  Every  human  being,  regardless  of  sex 
or  color,  ought  to  be  permitted  to  develop  himself  to  his 
full  powers,  and  any  agency  that  prevents  him  from 
doing  so  is  pernicious  in  the  extreme.  Is  it  to  the  bene- 
fit of  the  state  that  certain  minds  remain  undeveloped? 
In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  the  lower  classes  were  not 
permitted  to  read  the  Bible.  What  monumental  igno- 
rance !  do  we  of  today  exclaim ;  yet  here,  500  years  later, 
we  find  men  in  authority  advocating  an  analogous  thing 
in  the  non-education  of  certain  citizens." 

"But,"  protested  the  passenger,  "the  ignorant  Negro 
is  the  happy  Negro ;  to  educate  him  is  only  to  make  him 
unhappy." 

"Well,  sir,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  Latin, 
the  Caucasian  is  the  unhappiest  of  all  peoples.  Now, 
suppose  I  were  to  say,  Do  not  educate  the  white  man 
any  more,  for  to  do  so  is  only  to  make  him  unhappier, 
what  would  you  think?  With  all  due  respect  to  you,  sir, 
I  think  that  since  these  advocates  of  non-education  for 
the  Negro  have  shown  so  little  regard  for  us  in  other 
vital  matters,  and  so  much  genuine  solicitude  in  this,  I 
suspect  what  they  really  mean  is :  Do  not  educate  the 
Negro  and  make  the  white  man  unhappier." 

The  passenger  made  no  response,  so  Dixon  contin- 
ued :  "The  ignorant  Negro  will  be  the  happier  Negro 
until  we  educate  the  cause  that  makes  the  educated 
Negro  unhappy. 

"Moreover,  the  thinker  of  any  color  is  often  unhappy 
because  education  enables  him  to  see  the  tinsel  and  the 
heartaches  that  go  to  make  up  the  greater  part  of  our 
civilization.  But,  as  you  say,  there  is  some  mercy  in 
this  advocacy  of  non-education  of  the  Negro,  for  in  the 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


97 


United  States,  and  especially  in  the  North,  while  the 
educated  Negro,  as  a  mass,  lives  better  than  any  other 
similar  class  outside  the  United  States,  there  is  no  recog- 
nized place  in  America  for  the  educated  Negro.  The 
educated  Negro  in  America  is  clearly  in  advance  of  his 
age ;  that  is,  so  far  as  it  is  governed  by  the  white  man. 
He  lacks  that  association  which  helped  to  make  Johnson, 
Lamb  and  Garrick  what  they  were.  Solomon's  state- 
ment, 'He  that  increaseth  knowledge  increaseth  sorrow,' 
is  especially  true  of  the  Negro  in  the  United  States." 

"A  great  many  advocate  only  industrial  training  for 
the  Negro,"  said  the  passenger.  "What  do  you  think 
of  that?  I  favor  industrial  training.  That  being  the 
basis  of  material  production,  the  Negro  will  thereby 
acquire  greater  wealth,  which  means  independence.  If 
the  Negro  cannot  get  employment  he  must  create  work 
for  himself.  Professional  men  must  depend  largely  on 
others  for  employment.  The  Negro  race  has  already  too 
many  doctors,  lawyers  and  preachers." 

''In  view  of  what  science  says,"  answered  Dixon,  "it 
would  be  just  as  logical  to  ask,  AVhat  form  of  training  is 
preferable  for  the  Caucasian?  As  no  two  men  are  alike, 
human  intellect  cannot  be  standardized.  Any  such  at- 
tempt, besides  preventing  full  attainment,  must  cause 
unhappiness.  Every  man,  as  Shakespeare  advises,  should 
study  what  he  most  affects.  Since  thought  has  always 
preceded  intelligent  action,  and  action  provides  suste- 
nance for  thought,  it  goes  without  saying  that  every 
human  group  needs  both  thinkers  and  v/orkers.  And 
you  spoke  of  the  large  number  of  Negro  preachers,  doc- 
tors and  lawyers,  and  the  relatively  small  numbers  in  the 
mechanical  pursuits.  I  happen  to  have  the  figures  here. 
The  census  of  1910  shows :  Whites,  one  preacher  for 
every  813  of  population ;  Negroes,  one  for  every  560. 
Doctors:  whites,  one  for  CA^ery  512;  Negroes,  one  for 
every  3,195.  Lawyers  :  white,  one  for  every  763  ;  Negroes, 
one  for  every  12,620.    But  if  the  statement  were  true, 


98 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


the  reason  is  obvious:  since  the  Negro  has  difficulty  in 
getting  employment,  he  has  to  follow  those  professions 
in  which  he  can  strike  out  for  himself." 

The  train  began  to  slow  down  as  the  lights  of  a 
town  were  visible  in  the  near  distance. 

"What  town  is  this?"  inquired  the  passenger. 

"Evanston,  Wyo." 

"How  long  do  we  stay  here?" 

"About  five  minutes,"  replied  Dixon.  "We  change 
engines." 

"I  think  I'll  take  a  walk,  then." 

Dixon  took  the  sleeping  boy  to  his  mother,  and  re- 
turned with  the  passenger's  hat  and  overcoat.  Both 
men  left  the  smoker  and  went  out  on  the  vestibule.  As 
Dixon  opened  the  trap-door,  a  rush  of  cold  air  entered, 
compelling  the  passenger  to  button  his  overcoat  around 
his  neck. 

"Pretty  cold!"  he  remarked. 

"Yes,  sir,  it  is  about  twenty-five  degrees  below.  It 
gets  rather  cold  up  here  on  the  mountains." 

"How  high  up  are  we?" 

"Seven  thousand  five  hundred  feet." 

The  train  stopped  and  both  men  stepped  off  into  the 
crisp  midnight  air. 

The  passenger  caught  sight  of  the  railroad  lunch- 
room. 

"Have  we  time  to  get  a  cup  of  coft'ee?"  he  asked  hur- 
riedly. 

"Yes,  sir,"  assured  Dixon. 

"Come  along,  then,"  said  the  passenger,  catching 
Dixon  by  the  coat  sleeve,  and  both  men  started  on  a 
trot  over  the  crackling  snow  for  the  lunch-room. 

Here  the  passenger  ordered  cofifee  and  sandwiches  for 
Dixon  and  himself.  After  taking  a  few  mouthfuls,  the 
passenger  began  to  look  nervously  through  the  win- 
dows. 

"We  have  plenty  of  time,  sir,"  reassured  Dixon,  guess- 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


99 


ing  the  cause  of  his  anxiety.  "See !  there's  the  train- 
conductor  just  getting  his  coffee  now." 

When  they  were  once  more  on  the  train,  the  passen- 
ger, followed  by  Dixon,  went  back  into  the  smoker. 
Taking  off  his  overcoat  and  hat  and  throwing  them  on 
the  seat,  the  passenger  settled  himself  comfortably  in  the 
chair.  He  then  passed  his  cigarette  case  again  to  Dixon, 
urging  him  to  try  a  cigarette,  but  Dixon  courteously 
refused.  The  passenger  then  helped  himself  to  one,  and 
after  smoking  some  time,  he  reopened  the  conversation 
by  saying: 

'T  was  going  to  ask  you  something,  but  I  have  for- 
gotten it  now.  Let  me  see ;  we  were  last  speaking  of 
Negro  education.  Ah,  I  remember !  It  is  this :  From 
what  you  say,  you  are  evidently  not  in  favor  of  the  pol- 
icy pursued  by  the  late  leader  of  your  race,  Booker  T. 
Washington," 

*Tf  it  is  his  policy  of  the  surrender  of  certain  rights 
for  progress  in  other  directions  that  you  mean,  sir,  I  am, 
on  conditions.  The  late  Mr.  Washington  has  been  much 
blamed,  and  is  still  being  blamed,  for  not  standing  up 
more  firmly  for  the  rights  of  his  people.  A  friend  of 
mine,  a  book  agent,  told  me  he  had  difficulty  in  dispos- 
ing of  Mr.  Washington's  books  among  colored  persons. 
The  reason  for  this  difficulty,  he  said,  was  that  a  great 
many  of  his  would-be  patrons  said  that  they  did  not  like 
the  way  in  which  Mr.  Washington  had  bowed  to  the 
white  man.  But  even  had  Mr.  Washington  been  endowed 
with  an  unbending  spirit,  I  do  not  see  how  he  could 
have  done  otherwise  and  have  carried  out  his  life  w^ork. 
The  great  majority  of  the  people  he  wanted  to  help  were 
in  the  South,  where  any  assertion  of  Negro  rights  on  his 
part  would  not  only  have  been  resented,  but  might  have 
been  visited  by  serious  consequences.  Had  he  shown  a 
bold  spirit,  there  would  have  been  no  Tuskegee,  and 
schools  with  the  spirit  of  Tuskegee  were,  and  still  are,  a 
necessity  in  the  South  for  both  white  and  colored.  The 


100 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


major  portion  of  any  people  is  fit  only  for  industrial  pur- 
suits, and  this  would  be  especially  true  of  a  people  but 
recently  emancipated.  And  humble  as  Mr.  Washing- 
ton's manner  was,  there  were  those  whites  who  com- 
plained that  Tuskegee  with  its  thoroughness  was  mak- 
ing, not  servants,  but  masters,  and  thus  threatening  white 
domination.  Mr.  Washington  has  done  more  than  any 
other  person  or  agency  that  I  know  of  to  assist  the  feet 
of  the  crude,  struggling  mass  of  freedmen  to  the  first 
rung  of  the  ladder  of  progress.  While  it  is  true  that 
others  will  have  to  strive  hard  to  undo  the  impression 
he  gave  of  Negro  subordination,  yet  the  blame  for  this 
should  be  placed  on  the  conditions  to  which  he  was  forced 
to  adapt  himself  in  order  to  do  his  work. 

''But  whatever  one  may  say,  no  one  can  impugn  the 
honesty  of  his  motive.  This  was  a  genuine  desire,  born 
of  the  largeness  of  the  man's  heart,  to  do  good  to  his 
fellow-men.  Booker  T.  Washington  built  his  fame  on 
the  surest  of  all  foundations — unselfish  service.  Some 
object  that  he  made  a  great  deal  of  money.  I  sincerely 
hope  that  he  did,  because  few  deserved  it  better  than  he. 
There  are  a  very  few  of  his  critics,  indeed  few  citi- 
zens of  any  country,  who  would  not  do  well  to  emulate 
his  unselfishness,  his  energy,  and  his  rugged  determina- 
tion. 

*'And  yet,  I  resent  the  title  that  was  given  to  Mr. 
Washington,  that  of  leader  of  the  Negro  race.  He  did 
•not  have  the  spirit  of  a  leader;  that  is,  if  Hampden,  Tous- 
saint  L'Ouverture,  George  Washington,  Pinckney  and 
Patrick  Henry  had  that  spirit.  That  spirit  of  surrender 
:so  much  admired  in  Mr.  Washington  by  many  whites  is 
just  the  opposite  of  that  which  those  same  whites  would 
advocate  for  their  people  under  a  like  circumstance.  That 
'dog-like  quality  so  often  praised  in  the  slave  by  the  whites 
is  just  what  they  have  always  contemned  most  in  their 
-own  people.  We  hear  a  great  deal  of  praise  for  the 
.slave  who  .stayed  at  home  guarding  his  master's  prop- 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


101 


erty  while  the  master  went  off  to  war  to  forge  his  chains 
stronger.  I  think  that  if  those  slaves  had  had  a  grain  of 
sense  they  would  have  taken  everything  of  value  that 
they  could  have  set  their  hands  on  and  escaped.  The 
mission  of  a  republic  is  to  foster  and  stimulate  self-re- 
spect— to  let  every  man  and  every  woman  feel  that  he 
or  she  is  an  indispensable  part  of  the  universe.  There 
ought  to  be  no  cringing  or  kowtovving  to  caste." 

A  brief  pause,  then  Dixon  added:  '"'Of  course,  this 
policy  of  eating  humble  pie,  which  a  good  many  Negroes 
advocate,  is  the  best  one  by  v/hich  to  get  money.  But 
is  money  everything?  Can  it  buy  respect?  The  Jew  has 
a  great  deal  of  this  world's  money,  but  very  little  of  its 
respect.  I  think  that  one  spark  of  that  kingliness  of 
soul  which,  while  respecting  superior  mxcrit,  recognizes 
only  the  superiority  of  God,  gives  more  satisfaction  than 
all  the  wealth  of  a  Rockefeller.  If  the  Negro  ever  hopes 
to  gain  the  respect  of  the  whites,  if  he  ever  hopes  to  be 
regarded  as  other  than  a  minstrel,  he  will  have  to  make  a 
stand  for  his  manhood  rights." 

"But,"  objected  the  passenger,  ''the  Negro  is  poor, 
and  a  poor  man  cannot  afford  to  talk  too  strongly." 

''The  Negro  is  poor,"  retorted  Dixon,  "but  is  it  his 
fault?  I  think  that  in  1863,  after  250  years  of  unpaid 
toil,  if  he  had  received  justice,  nothing  less  than  a  trans- 
ference of  the  entire  South  into  his  hands  would  have 
been  the  result." 

The  passenger  did  not  respond. 

Dixon  continued :  "A  matter  of  pigment  can  furnish 
no  excuse  for  two  so  diametrically  opposed  policies. 
What  is  right  for  one  body  of  citizens  must  be  right  for 
another,  for  as  Huxley  says,  'There  can  no  more  be  two 
kinds  of  right  than  there  can  be  two  kinds  of  straight 
lines.'  Moreover,  this  policy  of  flattery  is  bad  for  the 
w^hite  man.  If  the  Negro  really  wishes  to  even  up  scores 
with  the  white  man  (I  speak  of  the  South),  he  should 


102 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


keep  on  flattering  him  and  thus  at  one  coup  lighten  both 
his  character  and  his  purse." 

The  bell  now  called  Dixon  away.  Ten  minutes  later 
he  returned. 

The  passenger,  who,  during  this  interval,  had  been 
reading  a  newspaper  bought  in  the  lunch-room,  called 
his  attention  to  an  account  of  a  lynching,  at  the  same 
time  asking  his  opinion. 

Dixon  took  it  and  read: 

"NEGRO  BURNED  BY  MOB  OF  CHEERING 
TEXANS.  THOUSANDS,  INCLUDING  YOUNG 
GIRLS,  SEE  BLACK  AT  STAKE  IN  PUBLIC 
SQUARE." 

Dixon  sighed :  ''That  such  a  thing  should  be  possible 
in  a  country  which,  more  than  any  other,  asserts  itself 
to  be  civilized.  Can  the  most  savage  African  tribe  equal 
in  barbarity  the  infamous  lynching  record  of  this  Repub- 
lic, with  its  churches,  colleges  and  schools?  When  be- 
fore in  the  history  of  the  world,  from  its  darkest  moment 
until  now,  has  there  been  a  country  where  a  citizen 
could  be  dismembered,  burnt  alive,  and  every  other 
form  of  atrocity  which  a  fiendish  ingenuity  can 
devise  be  visited  upon  him  because  he  refuses  to  get  off 
a  sidewalk  or  gives  a  saucy  word  to  another — all  on 
account  of  the  accident  of  color?  We  have  had  so  much 
lynching  that  it  is  now  accepted  as  one  of  our  American 
institutions,  and  from  what  I  have  just  read,  one  might 
say,  one  of  our  sports.  The  conscience  of  the  nation  is 
numb.  How  we  shudder  at  the  barbarity  of  the  pagan 
who,  2,000  years  ago,  used  to  burn  Christians  alive! 
Yet  we  pass  almost  unnoticed  the  burning  of  Christians 
by  Christians  today.  The  Roman  pagan  used  to  have  a 
holiday  and  flock  from  afar  to  see  Christians  tortured. 
Today  the  Christians  of  Georgia  and  Texas  are  doing  the 
same  thing.  And  the  better  element  acquiesces  in  this, 
too ;  for  the  murderers  are  rarely,  if  ever,  brought  to 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO   MAN  103 


justice.  Look  at  the  recent  horror  in  Waco,  Tex.  It 
was  perpetrated  in  broad  daylight  when  the  officers  of 
the  law  could  recognize  the  murderers,  and  no  one  was 
brought  to  justice.  There  is  too  much  catering  by  the 
better  classes  to  the  ignoble  spirit  in  the  lower  classes 
here  in  America.  Indeed,  every  man,  be  he  president  or 
peasant,  who  upholds  this  theory  of  Negro  inferiority 
is  in  his  own  way  an  aid  and  abettor  of  lynching,  for 
lynching  is  after  all  but  the  culmination  of  this  doctrine. 
The  lyncher  is  doing  in  his  way  what  the  better  classes 
are  doing  in  theirs  to  maintain  the  supremacy  of  unpig- 
mented  skin  and  silky  hair. 

"But  national  indif¥erence  to  lynching  does  not  min- 
imize the  horror  of  it.  Think  of  the  excruciating  pain 
of  even  a  burnt  finger,  then  imagine  what  it  must  be  to 
have  the  whole  body  in  flames.  The  upholders  of  chiv- 
alry in  olden  times  would  strive  singly  against  a  host  of 
foes ;  even  Don  Quixote  attacked  the  windmills  single- 
handed  ;  but  the  chevaliers  of  America  hunt  in  packs 
like  wolves  and  possess  the  same  reasoning  power. 
Thousands  of  the  'gallants'  will  attack  a  single  Negro, 
whom,  more  likely  than  not,  they  would  run  from  singl}^ 
Southern  chivalry,  so  far  as  the  Negro  is  concerned,  is 
as  dastardly,  brutal  and  debasing  as  olden  chivalry  was 
brave,  magnanimous  and  ennobling.  Having  immolated 
their  victim  these  ghouls  will  rend  the  reeking  flesh  in 
search  of  souvenirs,  bequeathing  them  as  a  rich  legacy 
unto  their  issue.  I  once  saw  a  Southerner  exhibiting 
with  great  pride  a  member  from  a  lynched  Negro.  'Could 
the  lynchers  of  George  be  any  worse  if  they  belonged 
to  any  other  than  the  Christian  religion?'  asked  Ingersoll. 
We  might  ask,  Could  they  be  more  barbarous  if  they 
belonged  to  any  other  variety  of  mankind?  I  cannot  see 
any  difference  between  that  part  of  the  psychology  of  a 
white  American  which  prompts  him  to  cut  off  the  fin- 
gers and  toes  of  a  black  man  to  keep  as  souvenirs,  and 
that  of  the  black  Fiji  Islander  who  used  to  cut  off  the 


104 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


fingers  and  toes  of  white  men  for  a  similar  purpose. 

''And  very  often  the  victims  are  innocent.  In  Macon, 
Ga.,  recently  two  innocent  Negroes  were  lynched.  And 
the  mob  sometimes  is  not  satisfied  with  one  victim.  Like 
the  Australian  Bushman,  the  lowest  of  all  human  types, 
who,  in  days  past,  would  wreak  his  vengeance  even  on 
the  family  of  an  offender,  the  mob  will  attack  all  Negroes. 
Just  so  long  as  lynching  continues,  just  so  long  we  will 
be  Pharisaic  when  we  speak  of  the  barbarity  of  any 
other  people;  Mexico,  for  example,  which,  by  the  way, 
abolished  race  distinctions  as  early  as  1824.  Really, 
these  best  citizens,  these  would-be  Chesterfields,  are  just 
common  murderers,  cowardly  to  the  heart's  core.  These 
ruffians  would  be  tolerated  in  no  other  country  except 
the  United  States  and  Turkey,  the  home  of  the  racial 
and  the  religious  fanatic,  respectively." 

The  passenger  made  no  response.  Dixon  now  looked 
out  the  window  and  remarked :    "We  are  in  Utah." 

"The  Mormon  state,  eh?  By  the  way,  have  any  of 
the  Mormons  at  present  more  than  one  wife?" 

"Yes,"  replied  Dixon.  "I  have  been  credibly  informed 
that  some  have  as  many  as  four." 

"Four  wives !  Well,  that  mightn't  be  so  bad,  but 
four  mothers-in-law — never." 

After  conversing  for  some  time  in  this  jocular  vein, 
the  passenger  returned  to  the  original  conversation. 

"What  were  you  saying  about  Mexico  and  racial  dis- 
tinctions?" he  asked. 

"Speaking  of  racial  distinctions,"  Dixon  replied  "how 
can  one  logically  call  this  mixture  of  every  human  vari- 
ety Negro?  What,  then,  is  a  Kruman?  By  what  law  of 
reason  can  you  call  a  man  fifteen  parts  Caucasian  and 
one  part  Negro  a  Negro?  Why  is  a  man  three  parts 
white  and  one  part  Indian  an  Indian?  Would  you  call 
a  mixture  of  Japanese  and  Indian,  Japanese  or  Indian? 
But  we  do  not  intend  to  cavil  at  the  name,    The  term. 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAX 


105 


Anglo-Saxon,  also  a  misnomer,  even  when  applied  to  the 
average  Englishman,  vras,  in  Xorman  times,  hardly  less 
opprobious.  The  term  Z\egro  may  yet  become  an  hon- 
orable one." 

'■'That  is  hardly  likely,''  replied  the  passenger,  "since 
it  is  even  novr  a  synonym  for  'slave''/'" 

''I  agree  with  you,  too,  sir.  Personally,  I  strongly 
object  to  its  use.  I  would  A-ery  much  prefer  to  be 
known  by  my  national  patronymic,  as  I  would  be  Avere  I 
citizen  of  any  other  country  but  the  United  States." 

A  few  moments  of  thought,  then  Dixon  added : 

"From  the  manner  in  which  the  Negro  is  being  beaten 
on  the  anvil  of  adversity,  it  would  appear  that  he  is  being 
fitted  for  some  vital  task." 

"Such  as  what?''  demanded  the  passenger  dubiously. 

"'One  feature  of  this  is  helping  to  make  the  Caucasian 
much  more  stable  mentally.  Eugenists  tell  us  that  since 
1876  there  has  been  a  marasmus  of  population  in  nearly 
all  of  the  Caucasian  countries,  except  Russia  and  Ger- 
many, and  that  was  before  the  war.  One  author  who 
examined  the  records  of  the  recruiting  stations  in  Xew 
York  State  found  that  85  per  cent  of  the  applicants  in 
the  army  stations  and  8/^2  per  cent  in  the  navy  stations 
were  rejected  on  account  of  weak  hearts,  weak  lungs, 
weak  kidneys,  and  like  disabilities.  Those  in  the  navy 
stations  must  have  been  all  white,  since  Xegroes  are 
barred  from  the  navy,  except  as  mess  attendants.  In 
my  belief,  vrhat  the  Caucasian  wants  as  a  strengthener, 
especially  here  in  America,  is  a  strong  infusion  from 
some  primitive  stock,  as  the  magnificent  Zulu,  with  his 
nerves  and  physique  unspoiled  by  the  greed  of  civiliza- 
tion :  that  is,  if  the  Zulu  would  stand  for  it.  The  Ameri- 
can Xegro.  having  lived  here  for  nearly  300  years,  is  as 
thoroughly  acclimated  as  the  white.  In  my  estimation 
he  could  not  add  so  much  to  the  physique  of  the  Cau- 
casian as  the  Zulu,  but  vdth  his  fresher  and  more  buov- 


106 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


ant  mentality,  he  can  do  a  great  deal  toward  relieving 
the  tension  on  the  nerves  of  the  Caucasian.  For  instance, 
statistics  of  1913  show  one  suicide  for  every  8,500  white; 
one  for  36,000  colored ;  white  insane,  one  in  469  of  popu- 
lation;  Negro,  one  in  761;  and  whites  are  much  more 
prone  to  mob  violence — all  signs  of  highly-strung  nerves. 
President  Rittenhouse  of  the  Life  Extension  Institute 
gave  (December,  1915)  twenty  causes  of  the  decreas- 
ing vitality  among  the  American  people,  and  the  chief 
one  was  nervous  strain.  I  think  it  is  for  this  reason  then 
— repairing  the  ravages  made  by  civilization — that  has 
caused  Nature  with  her  prevision  to  deposit  this  balance 
from  her  reserve  fund — the  Negro — here  to  America." 

Here  Dixon  searched  his  note  book,  and  having  found 
the  desired  passage,  said :  "Here  is  what  Sir  Harry 
Johnston  in  his  paper  before  the  Races  Congress  has  to 
say  about  this.    Would  you  care  to  hear  it?" 

The  passenger  nodded  his  assent. 

*TIe  (the  Negro)  has  certainly  been  endowed  by 
Nature  with  a  degree  of  race  fertility  probably  surpass- 
ing that  of  the  European,  Asiatic  and  American  Indian 
living  under  conditions  similarly  unfavorable  to  the 
struggle  for  existence.  Those  few  scientific  men  in  Brit- 
ain, Germany,  France,  the  United  States  and  Brazil  who 
have  striven  to  understand  the  anthropology  of  the  Negro 
and  to  compare  it  with  that  of  the  white  man  are  rather 
inclined  than  otherwise  to  argue  now  that  the  Negro 
and  the  Negroids  have  contributed  in  the  past,  and  still 
more  may  contribute  in  the  future,  a  very  important 
quota  to  the  whole  sum  of  humanity  an  element  of  sound- 
ness and  stability  in  physical  development  and  certain 
mental  qualities  which  the  perfected  man  of,  let  us  say, 
twenty  or  twenty-two  centuries  after  Christ,  cannot  af- 
ford to  do  without." 

"But  to  return  to  this  matter  of  race  distinction,"  said 
the  passenger.    "What  will  you  call  them,  if  not  *Negro'? 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


107 


You  must  have  some  name  to  call  them  by,  a  name  to 
distinguish  the  race." 

''Permit  me  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact,  sir,  that 
there  is  only  one  race — the  human  mind.  The  term  race, 
as  we  usually  use  it,  implies  some  great  and  inherent 
psychological  difference.  I  remember  when  I  used  to 
think  that  a  Chinaman  must  be  an  entirely  different  sort 
of  ,  being  from  myself,  and  how  much  surprised  I  was  to 
find  out  that  he  was  just  as  much  human  as  I.  In  speak- 
ing of  this  term  'race,'  Finot  says  that  it  is  only  an 
abstract  image  the  existence  of  which  does  not  lie  out- 
side of  our  brain.  'Human  variety,'  he  says,  'is  a  more 
truthful  title.'" 

"All  right,"  smiled  the  passenger.  "What  title  would 
you  use  to  distinguish  that  human  variey  known  as  the 
Negro?" 

"The  only  logical  title  I  can  think  of  is  American," 
responded  Dixon.  "It  must  be  remembered  that,  next  to 
the  Indian,  the  so-called  Negro  is  preponderantly  the 
true  American.  The  census  of  1910  showed  only  40,339 
foreign-born  Negroes.  If  those  descendants  of  white 
men  who  have  been  here  two  or  three  generations  can 
lose  their  hyphen  when  they  wish,  and  assume  the  title 
American,  a  title  clearly  belonging  to  the  Indian,  why 
can't  the  descendants  of  the  black  man  who  have  been 
here  a  score  of  generations  assume  that  title,  too?  But 
the  chief  reason  for  a  separate  name  is  that  our  caste 
system  demands  one.  All  the  present  titles  are  illogical. 
Afro-American  is  ridiculous.  One  never  hears  of  Afro- 
Brazilian,  Afro-Cuban,  Afro-West  Indian.  The  hyphen 
is  really  a  minus  sign — Afro-American  minus  the  Ameri- 
can. I  think  the  first  step  toward  the  abolition  of  our 
caste  system  will  be  the  abolition  of  the  terms  Negro, 
African,  Afro-American,  colored  race,  and  so  on,  using 
instead  plain  American.  So  far  as  every-day  usage  is 
concerned,  it  is  quite  possible  to  refer  to  a  person  with- 
out saying  whether  he  is  a  blonde,  brunette,  or  black; 


108 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


English,  Egyptian,  or  Eurasian;  Northerner  or  South- 
erner." 

The  passenger  appeared  to  be  in  deep  thought.  After 
a  few  moments'  pause,  he  asked :  "But  how  do  you 
account  for  the  higher  criminality  of  the  Negro?  The 
Negro  is  nearly  four  times  more  criminal  than  the  white 
man." 

"It  is  due,  first  of  all,  to  the  injustice  he  receives  from 
the  officers  of  the  law.  Justice,  when  a  Negro  is  brought 
before  her,  discards  her  scales  and  takes  a  firmer  grip  on 
her  sword.  Secondly,  to  the  much  larger  percentage  of 
Negro  illiterates — the  relative  proportions  are  six  to  one 
in  favor  of  the  whites ;  and  thirdly,  to  the  larger  number 
of  poor  Negroes.  Finot  asks,  'After  all,  can  one  ask  of  a 
race  exasperated  by  all  kinds  of  barbarous  and  unjust 
treatment  that  self-respect  and  moral  dignity  which  con- 
stitute the  best  barriers  against  criminal  leanings?'  If 
you  continually  point  out  the  faults  of  the  ordinary  man 
and  try  to  impress  upon  him  what  a  very  inferior  crea- 
ture he  is,  you  will  succeed  in  most  cases  in  making  him 
a  debased,  spiritless  thing.  On  the  other  hand,  if  you 
praise  his  good  qualities,  you  inspire  him  to  do  better 
and  may  make  a  truly  noble  creature  of  him.  The 
Negro's  greater  lack  of  proper  home  training,  due  to  his 
poverty,  is  also  a  potent  factor.  It  must  be  remembered, 
too,  that  the  Mexican,  Italian,  Austrian,  French,  Cana- 
dian and  Russian  emigrant,  all  have  a  higher  percentage 
of  crime  than  the  Negro." 

"What  about  rape?"  next  questioned  the  passenger. 

"This  seems  to  be  only  a  reaction  of  segregation. 
The  mind,  especially  that  part  connected  with  sex,  pre- 
fers in  most  individuals,  the  not  easily  obtained.  Igno- 
rant persons,  Negro  or  otherwise,  seem  to  be  no  excep- 
tion to  this.  In  Jamaica  and  Haiti,  where  black  outnum- 
bers white,  the  white  woman  is  as  safe  or  safer  than 
among  her  own  people.    In  one  Jamaican  village  where 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


109 


I  lived  for  some  time,  I  found  that  neither  whites  nor 
blacks  placed  any  especial  value  on  a  white  skin.  In 
Cuba,  Porto  Rico  and  all  of  the  South  and  Central  Amer- 
ican countries  where  the  black  man  is  outnumbered,  but 
where  he  has  liberty  of  movement,  this  condition  is  , 
equally  unknown.  This  evil  seems  to  be  peculiar  to  the 
United  States,  and  to  a  smaller  extent  in  those  parts  of 
South  Africa  where  conditions  similar  to  those  in  the 
South  exist.  With  segregation  as  the  basic  factor,  there 
are  a  concatenation  of  causes  which  miight  go  to  make  up 
the  Negro  attacker  of  white  women :  the  sight  of  pic- 
tures of  nude  white  Avomen  in  highly  suggestive  poses ; 
revenge — the  Xegro  sees  the  white  man  making  free 
with  the  best  of  his  women,  a  tA'pe  which  he,  a  Negro, 
cannot  get,  and  hears,  too,  the  often  inflammatory  talk 
by  Negroes  less  ignorant  than  himself  against  this  and 
other  phases  of  the  color  question;  and  rum — all  of  these 
causes  go  to  make  up  a  lust  even  more  paralyzing  to  the 
will  than  that  described  by  Shakespeare  in  Sonnet  129,  as 
'perjured,  murderous,  bloody,  full  of  blame,  savage,  rude, 
cruel,  not  to  trust,  past  reason  hunted,  mad  in  pursuit  and 
possession.'  This  state  of  mind,  o'erwhelming  a  will  un- 
tempered  by  refining  influences,  drives  him  on  to  the  deed. 

"Again,  the  white  woman  is  sometimes  to  blame.  A 
few  months  past,  on  a  trip  from  ^Minneapolis,  a  passen- 
ger volunteered  to  me  the  information  of  how  a  white 
woman,  the  wife  of  a  farmer,  had  been  taken  flagrante 
delicto  in  a  field  with  a  Negro.  The  woman,  to  shield 
herself,  accused  her  lover,  but  when  she  saw  him  being 
lynched,  confessed  her  blame." 

"But  it  is  usually  a  low  type  of  Negro  who  is  guilty 
of  this,"  objected  the  passenger. 

''The  greater  the  reason,  sir.  In  most  cases  of  liaisons 
between  Negroes  and  white  wom.en  it  is  usually  the 
white  w^oman  who  makes  the  advances.  Now,  howeA'er 
bold  a  Avoman  may  be,  she  will  not,  as  a  rule,  make 
advances  to  any  man  who  is  a  personality,  fearing  a 


110 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


refusal,  and  in  this  case  the  desire  for  sexual  novelty 
overcoming  any  repugnance  to  crudeness,  she  takes  the 
man  who  is  not  a  personaHty." 

Dixon  consulted  his  note  book  and  said :  "I  have 
three  entries  here  concerning  this  topic,  which  you  might 
find  interesting.  First,  the  following  quotation  from  Dr. 
Frances  Hoggan  of  London,  in  her  paper  before  the 
Races  Congress.  'In  the  outlying  districts  of  Africa, 
where  native  life  is  seen  at  its  crudest,  white  women 
have  no  fear  and  they  pass  freely  in  and  out  among  the 
native  population,  safe  and  unarmed,  never  dreaming  of 
danger.  It  is  when  natives  and  low-class  white  men 
come  into  contact  with  each  other  that  the  peril  origi- 
nates, and  white  women  begin  to  see  in  the  native  a  pos- 
sible source  of  danger.' 

Second,  of  those  committed  to  prison  for  major  of- 
fenses in  1904,  the  percentage  committed  for  rape  was : 
Hungarian,  4:4;  Italian,  4:4;  Austrian,  2.7.  Poles,  2:1; 
colored,  1.9;  all  whites,  2.3;  foreign  whites,  2.6.  The 
Negroes  lynched  for  rape  would  change  this  percentage 
less  than  one-fourth  of  1  per  cent. 

Third,  the  following  quotation  from  the  'Medical  Re- 
view of  Reviews'  for  July,  1916:  'The  sexual  crimes  of 
the  black  race  against  the  white  are  as  nothing  when  com- 
pared to  the  sexual  crimes  of  the  white  race  against  the 
black.  Negroes  have  raped  white  women  retail,  but  the 
white  man  has  raped  the  colored  women  wholesale.' " 

"The  mortality  of  the  Negro  is  also  greater  than  that 
of  the  white,'^  next  commented  the  passenger. 

"This  is  also  due  to  the  Negro's  greater  poverty.  The 
rich  live  longer  than  the  poor.  In  spite  of  adverse  cir- 
cumstances, however,  the  Negro  is  more  tenacious  of  life 
than  the  white  man,  ranking  next  to  the  Indian.  In  1910 
there  were  2,675  Negro  centenarians,  against  764  white, 
a  proportion  of  30  to  1,  the  Indian  being  about  45  to  1. 
The  Negro's  higher  mortality  and  criminality  are  the 
direct  results  of  his  ill-treatment  by  the  white  man.  The 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


111 


attitude  of  those  white  men  who  wrong  Negroes,  and 
especially  Negro  women,  is  like  that  certain  woman  who, 
after  committing  a  shameful  act,  as  Solomon  says,  'eat- 
eth  and  wipeth  her  mouth,  and  sayeth,  I  have  done  no 
wickedness.'  The  feeling,  Tt  is  only  a  ''nigger",'  is 
responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  extra  wrong." 

Dixon  went  in  to  answer  the  bell.  When  he  returned 
the  passenger,  who  had  been  thinking  of  what  Ingersoll 
had  said  concerning  lynchings  and  Christianity,  asked : 

''What  do  you  think  of  Christianity  and  the  Negro?" 

"Now,  sir,"  responded  Dixon,  "I  appeal  to  your  com- 
mon sense.  Consider  this — but,  first,  let  me  differenti- 
ate between  any  religious  sect  which  practices  that  sub- 
lime Christianity  which  enjoins,  'Love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself,'  and  the  usual  Christianity  of  the  white  Gentile. 
For  these  Gentiles,  though  worshiping  a  Jew,  have  per- 
secuted the  Jews  for  fourteen  centuries  or  more.  I 
have  found  in  my  travels  that  these  white  Gentiles,  as  a 
whole,  do  not  like  the  Jew  and  the  darker  races  taken 
collectively;  that  is,  in  some  parts  of  the  world  the  Jew 
is  disliked,  as  in  nearly  all  of  the  European  countries, 
while  there  is  no  antipathy  against  the  Negro.  Then  in 
some  places  both  Jews  and  the  darker  races  are  disliked, 
as  in  the  United  States.  On  the  whole,  I  have  found 
that  the  Christianity  of  the  English-speaking  Gentile  does 
not  work  when  it  brings  him  in  contact  with  the  darker 
races  in  considerable  numbers,  as  in  South  Africa,  Aus- 
tralia and  the  United  States.  The  religion  of  the  Latin 
races,  Roman  Catholicism,  is  decidedly  broader.  Now  to 
speak  of  the  Christianity  of  the  white  Gentile  in  the 
United  States.  Here  is  a  religion  which  declares  that  its 
Founder  died  to  save  all  men,  regardless  of  distinction — 
a  religion  which  avers  it  is  a  great  unifying  force.  Now 
here  are  two  peoples  of  the  same  nationality,  language, 
dress,  ideals,  not  to  speak  of  blood  relationship,  both 
worshiping  this  great  unifying  force,  and  expecting  as  a 
reward  to  go  to  the  same  place,  and  yet  because  of  so 


112 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


slight  a  matter  as  complexion,  these  peoples  cannot  meet 
together  in  the  same  church.  And  why?  For  fear  of 
what  they  call  social  equality!  Can  you  think  of  any- 
thing more  absurdly  inconsistent?  If  they  can't  harmon- 
ize on  earth,  if  they  can't  even  live  in  the  same  block,  or 
work  in  positions  of  equal  importance,  will  they  do  so 
in  heaven?  White  church!  colored  church!  White  God! 
Colored  God,  eh?  What  material  for  a  satirist!  Vol- 
taire nearly  laughed  the  Pope  out  of  the  Vatican  for  less 
than  this.  Quite  recently  in  Florida,  where  white  can- 
not teach  black,  three  white  women  were  arrested  for 
endeavoring  to  instil  into  Negro  children  the  love  of  that 
same  God  whom  the  good  Christians  of  Florida  habitu- 
ally implore  to  send  light  to  those  whom  they  call  the 
heathen.  For  the  life  of  me,  I  can't  understand  the  sen- 
timentality of  those  who,  as  a  Negro  writer  says,  'will 
weep  over  Christ  lynched  1900  years  ago,'  and  yet  accept 
as  a  matter  of  course  the  lynching  of  a  Negro  today; 
yea,  even  participate  in  it.  Some  morbid  Negro  haters, 
like  Cole  Blease,  are  never  tired  of  spouting  of  Jesus 
and  his  love.  To  my  thinking,  men  like  IngersoU  or 
Thomas  Payne  are  worth  many  ship-loads  of  the  average 
Christian." 

''Then  you  do  not  advocate  Christianity  for  the 
Negro?"  asked  the  other. 

"The  real  Christianity,  yes.  The  usual  Christianity 
of  the  white  Gentile  with  its  egotism  and  self-interest, 
no.  From  what  I  have  seen  in  Africa,  and  read  of  as 
occurring  in  slavery  times,  I  know  that  this  brand  of 
Christianity,  as  a  whole,  means  no  good  to  the  darker 
races,  and  the  sooner  they  see  it  the  better.  I  do  not 
mean  to  disparage  the  great  work  done  by  men  like  Liv- 
ingston, Moffat  and  Dan  Crawford,  but  these  good  men 
are  usually  followed  by  the  dishonest  trader  with  his 
whiskey,  immorality,  and  disease,  under  the  pretext  of 
carrying  the  white  man's  burden,  which,  by  the  way,  is 
composed  largely  of  plunder.    The  white  man  must  first 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


113 


be  Christianized;  until  then  the  weaker  varieties  of  the 
human  race  may  expect  very  little  from  Christianity 
except  to  be  plundered." 

''But,"  objected  the  passenger,  "Christianity  has  done 
a  great  deal  for  the  Negro.  Look  what  a  solace  it  was 
to  him  during  slavery  times." 

''And  it  was  also  the  strongest  argument  used  to 
keep  him  enslaved,"  rejoined  Dixon.  "I  think  the  Negro 
has  too  much  religious  enthusiasm.  Many  Negro  sects 
seem  to  have  the  haziest  idea  possible  of  Christianity. 
As  I  sometimes  watch  these  people,  howling  and  huUa- 
ballooing  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  any  other 
form  of  emotion,  religious  or  othervv^ise,  would  have 
produced  the  same  effect,  and  that,  so  far  as  Jesus  is 
concerned,  any  other  rose  by  that  name  would  smell  as 
sweet  to  them.  The  poor  white  mountaineers  are  also 
violently  religious  and  immoral.  The  slogan  of  the 
Negro  devotee  is,  'Take  the  world,  but  give  me  Jesus,' 
and  the  white  man  strikes  an  eager  bargain  with  him. 
The  religion  of  the  Negro,  as  a  whole,  needs  to  be  tem- 
pered by  the  philosophy  of  right  living. 

"Another  thing:  there  are  too  many  Negro  preachers. 
Many  of  these  are  rascals,  pure  and  simple,  who  have 
discovered  an  easy  way  to  make  money  and  to  have  all 
the  women  they  want.  In  my  opinion,  one  of  the  first 
steps  toward  a  higher  progress  among  my  poeple  should 
be  the  ejection  of  these  parasites." 

"You  said  you  have  been  in  Turkey.  What  do  you 
think  of  Mohammedanism  and  the  Negro?" 

"From  what  I  saw  of  it  in  Egypt,  Turkey  and  other 
Moslem  countries,  I  think  that,  despite  its  ethical  inferi- 
ority, it  is  as  liberal  to  its  dark-skinned  followers  as 
Christianity  is  illiberal ;  in  fact,  any  other  form  of  relig- 
ion is  more  liberal  toward  the  Negro  than  the  usual 
Christianity  of  the  white  Gentile.  Next  to  Mohammed  is 
a  Negro,  Bilal.  Christianity — I  speak  almost  entirely  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  brand — likes  the  Negro  only  when  he 


114 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


is  content  to  be  a  flunky.  Islam,  on  the  other  hand, 
inspires  him  to  be  a  man." 

The  passenger  took  up  the  newspaper  and  resumed 
his  reading.  After  a  while  he  inquired :  "What  do  you 
think  of  politics  and  the  Negro?  What  party  do  you 
think  he  ought  to  vote  for?" 

"I  do  not  think,"  said  Dixon,  "that  he  owes  allegiance 
to  any  party,  since,  however  divided  in  creed,  all  have 
fundamentally  the  same  ideas  regarding  him.  These 
parties,  you  will  remember,  are  made  up  of  those  indi- 
viduals who  discriminate  against  him  singly.  The  Repub- 
lican party  is  regarded  as  the  traditional  friend  of  the 
Negro,  yet  I  think  our  progress  is  due  to  our  own  energy, 
to  our  being  in  the  most  prosperous  of  all  countries,  and 
to  aid  from  individual  whites,  rather  than  to  its  effort  on 
our  behalf.  I  have  always  considered  the  Republican 
party  responsible  for  the  major  part  of  the  hardships  my 
people  have  experienced  during  the  past  fifty  years,  in 
that  it  did  not  make  some  practical  provision  to  aid  the 
freedman  in  gaining  economic  independence.  On  the 
whole,  I  think  that  the  Republican  party  does  more  harm 
than  good  to  the  Negro  from  what  I  know  of  its  meth- 
ods in  Negro  districts.  It  is  true  that  a  few  Negroes  get 
positions,  but  it  is  at  the  moral  expense  of  the  others. 
Although  this  party  makes  a  great  show  of  love  for  the 
Negro  around  election  time,  agitating  the  color  ques- 
tion most  fearfully,  it  would  gladly  get  rid  of  him  if  it 
could  and  transfer  its  attention  to  the  South.  The 
Republican  party  in  this  respect  is  like  a  man  who  is 
allied  with  a  woman  he  considers  below  him  in  rank,  and 
whose  company  he  barely  tolerates.  Seeing  another 
woman  he  much  prefers,  but  who  will  have  nothing  to 
do  with  him  while  his  connection  with  the  other  woman 
holds,  he  would  glady  get  rid  of  the  old  love,  but  dares 
not,  fearing  the  harm  she  could  do  him." 

The  passenger  smiled  approvingly.    "And  what  about 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


115 


the  Democratic  party?"  he  asked,  with  some  hesitation, 
after  a  few  momxcnts. 

Dixon,  out  of  courtesy  for  w^hat  he  considered  must  be 
the  political  creed  of  the  other,  hesitated,  but  after  a  few 
moments  of  thought,  decided  to  give  his  frank  opinion. 

He  responded :  "A  more  characteristic  title  for  the 
so-called  Democratic  party  would  be  Negrophobic  party. 
Their  attitude  to  us  is  just  the  opposite  of  w^hat  their 
name  signifies.  (Of  course  there  are  broad-minded  men 
in  both  parties,  with  the  Republican  containing  the 
greater  number.)  In  many  parts  of  the  South  this  so- 
called  Democratic  party  is  spectacular.  It  would  appear 
that  the  successful  candidate  is  he  who  can  abuse  the 
Negro  most  vociferously.  The  Negro,  inconsequential 
as  they  make  him  out  to  be,  plays  the  most  impor- 
tant part  in  the  lives  of  these  men.  Despite  all  their 
affectation  of  contempt  for  him  they  live  chiefly  for  him, 
and  after  a  lifetime  of  brooding  on  him  they,  themselves, 
have  unconsciously  become  just  as  cantakerous  as  they 
imagine  him  to  be.  These  men,  even  if  they  have  a  sense 
of  justice,  can  never  exercise  it;  they  must  act  with  the 
mob  if  they  want  to  keep  their  jobs.  Take  Ben  Killman, 
that  blustering  super-egotist.  Let  him  or  any  of  his  ilk 
but  declare  a  stand  for  justice  to  all  American  citizens, 
regardless  of  color,  and  it  would  mean  their  political 
death.  Weininger's  statement  that  the  politician  is  a 
prostitute  is  at  least  true  of  a  good  many  of  this  type. 

''And  the  result  of  this  policy  is  an  abundant  display 
of  verbal  pyrotechnics  to  please  the  mob.  Take  a  states- 
man like  Lardaman.  His  sole  function  in  the  Senate  is 
like  that  of  a  firecracker  at  a  fete — to  make  a  noise,  and 
the  louder  the  noise  the  greater  the  applause  of  the 
child-minds  in  the  audience.  These  men  have  raved  so 
continuously  about  the  Negro,  to  the  exclusion  of  every- 
thing else,  that  according  to  the  law  of  cause  and  effect 
that  part  of  their  brain  which  is  connected  with  the 


116 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


Negro  must  be  hypertrophied  from  overuse,  while  the 
remainder  be  atrophied  from  disuse.  I  seriously  believe 
that  if  the  Negro  were  suddenly  to  be  removed  from  the 
South,  these  statesmen,  like  victims  of  amnesia,  would 
have  to  begin  life  again  as  infants.  But,  with  all  this, 
the  so-called  Democratic  party  possesses  one  admirable 
trait,  which  consciously  or  unconsciously  has  been  more 
prominently  developed  than  we  find  it  in  its  great  rival, 
the  Republican  party — that  trait  is  frankness  of  expres- 
sion.   It  does  not  like  the  Negro  and  says  so." 

''And  what  do  you  think  of  the  Socialists,"  next  asked 
the  other. 

''The  Socialists  appear  to  stand  for  unqualified  fair 
play  to  the  Negro,  as  witness  articles  in  their  papers. 
Yet  it  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  theirs  is  a  new 
party  and  needs  support.  I  hope  that  I  am  not  doing 
the  Socialists  an  injustice,  but  I  fear  their  party  is  like 
that  white  man  who  will  open  a  business  in  a  Negro 
neighborhood,  and  when  he  gets  sufficiently  rich,  move  to 
a  white  locality  and  bar  Negroes.  I  note  that  when  it 
comes  to  employment  of  the  Negro,  they  maintain  the 
same  attitude  as  the  rest  of  the  whites.  In  Milwaukee, 
the  Socialist  stronghold,  the  condition  of  the  Negro  is 
in  many  respects  worse  than  that  of  the  average  North- 
ern city.  I  agree  with  Prof.  Loeb  when  he  says :  'As 
long  as  the  Socialists  worship  at  the  shrine  of  racial 
antipathy,  they  will  so  long  continue  to  be  an  unreliable 
factor  in  the  progress  of  civilization.'  " 

"Anyway,  you  will  admit  the  wisdom  of  keeping  the 
Negro  from  the  polls  in  parts  of  the  South?  The  white 
man  is  better  fitted  to  govern  and  he  will  give  the  Negro 
a  far  better  government  than  Negroes  could  give  white 
men.  We  do  not  want  to  return  to  the  horrors  of 
Reconstruction." 

"That  the  honest  and  intelligent  citizen,  and  he  alone, 
should  have  a  voice  in  the  government  of  any  country 
is  so  evident  that  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  say  so. 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


117 


There  ought  also  to  be  no  royalty  in  vice,  and  I  cannot 
see  why  a  vicious  white  man  should  be  permitted  to 
vote  and  not  a  vicious  Negro.  Debar  them  both  from 
the  polls.  And  with  reference  to  a  return  to  the  evils 
of  Reconstruction,  this  would  be  impossible,  for,  first, 
there  are  no  more  carpet-baggers ;  second.  Southern 
whites  are  more  educated;  and  third,  the  Negro  is  four- 
teen times  more  literate  now  than  then.  I  do  not  doubt 
that  in  every  Southern  community  you  can  find  Negroes 
possessing  all  the  educational  qualifications  of  the  aver- 
age white  Southerner  for  election  to  office.'' 

The  passenger  considered  the  paper  in  his  hand,  then 
inquired :  "What  influence  do  you  think  the  press  has 
upon  race  prejudice?" 

''The  press,"  said  Dixon,  with  conviction,  "is  the 
greatest  propagator  and  maintainer  of  color  prejudice. 
Crimes  committed  by  the  lower  classes  of  Negroes,  and, 
in  short,  anything  unfavorable  to  the  Negro,  is  promi- 
nently displayed,  while  favorable  things  are  given  scant 
mention.  The  press  takes  a  malicious  delight  in  giving 
a  false  impression  of  the  Negro.  And  its  cowardliness ! 
Observation  tells  me  that  the  Jew  in  this  country  is  dis- 
liked even  more  than  the  Negro.  Why,  then,  does  not 
the  press  heckle  the  Jew?  Because  he  has  money  and 
can  put  them  out.  of  business.  A  great  many  persons 
know  only  of  the  newspaper  type  of  Negro,  which  no 
more  represents  him  than  the  thug  or  the  clown  repre- 
sents the  Caucasian.  To  speak  frankly,  the  larger  jour- 
nals ought  to  have  got  beyond  that  stage  where  they 
find  such  cheap  methods  necessary  to  the  retention  of 
their  popularity.  Of  all  the  newspapers  that  I  know  and 
I  know  many,  there  are  only  three  that  are  above  this 
despicable  conduct.  Let  anything,  however  insignifi- 
cant, occur  in  which  a  Negro  is  concerned,  and  they  will 
often  greatly  exaggerate  it,  as  I  have  proved  time 
and    again.    Schopenhauer,    speaking    of  journalists 


118  FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


and  the  way  they  exaggerate  and  create  alarm,  says, 
'Herein  they  are  like  little  dogs;  if  anything  stirs 
they  immediately  set  up  a  shrill  bark.'  When  I  think  of 
the  attitude  of  the  press  toward  the  Negro  I  cannot  help 
thinking  how  true  this  is.  I  regret  to  say  it,  but  the 
Fourth  Estate  in  this  respect  reminds  me  of  a  spiteful 
old  gossip  who,  shutting  her  eyes  to  the  good  in  a  neigh- 
bor, seeks  out  the  neighbor's  faults,  and  after  magnify- 
ing them  considerably  spreads  them  broadcast  over  the 
town.  I  can't  see  any  difference  in  this  respect  between 
the  conduct  of  some  of  these  big  newspapers  and  that 
of  some  four-page  weekly  conducted  by  some  ignorant 
Negro  editor  who  depends  on  the  agitation  of  the  color 
question  for  his  patronage.  If  diligence  is  displayed  in 
hunting  for  crime,  fairness  demands  the  same  diligence 
in  hunting  for  virtue.  Or  why  not  adopt  the  system  in 
vogue  in  all  other  parts  of  the  New  World — do  not  men- 
tion color?    It  is  not  at  all  necessary." 

"But  aren't  you  forgetting  the  influence  of  books  such 
as  'the  Freckled  Jeopard'?" 

''Since  these  authors  make  their  appeal  directly  to 
the  color  vanity  of  the  unthinking  and  usually  incompe- 
tent white  man,"  replied  Dixon,  "they  undoubtedly  do  a 
great  deal  of  harm.  Any  man  who  sets  out  to  tell  a 
group  of  human  beings,  however  unmeritorious  it  be, 
that  it  is  better  than  any  other  group,  generally  has  a 
pleasant  and  easy  task. 

"And  the  men  who  do  so  are  rascals,  pure  and  sim- 
ple, whose  sole  aim  is  to  batten  on  the  ignorance  of  oth- 
ers. I  refer  especially  to  Thomas  Vixon,  who,  according 
to  a  leading  historian,  is  the  most  misleading  of 
those  who  write  against  the  Negro.  According  to  Vixon, 
one  drop  of  Negro  blood  damns  its  possessor  intellectu- 
ally. While  his  motion  picture,  'The  ABORTION  of  a 
Nation,'  was  showing  in  Chicago,  it  happened  that  a 
Negro  was  accused  of  attacking  a  white  woman  and  the 
supposed  incident  was  used  in  a  full-page  ad.  with  lurid 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO   MAN  119 


type  to  advertise  the  play.  Vixon's  plays  have  caused 
several  riots,  some  with  fatal  results.  In  my  opinion 
this  man  is  the  most  mischievous  of  those  literary  sharp- 
ers who  prey  on  the  emotions  of  the  novel-reading  public. 

''There  are  many  points  of  resemblance  between  the 
prostitute  and  this  type  of  literary  man :  they  use  intel- 
lect and  motherhood,  those  highest  gifts  that  God  give 
to  man  and  woman  respectively,  not  as  a  means  of  bless- 
ing humanity,  but  to  blight  it;  these  authors  make  a  liv- 
by  catering  to  the  lowest  of  the  intellectual  vices — preju- 
dice ;  the  prostitute  by  catering  to  the  lowest  form  of 
human  passion — lust ;  the  prostitute's  aim  is  to  make 
money,  though  in  doing  so  she  strengthens  that  enemy 
humanity  has  always  fiercely  battled — Disease ;  their  aim 
is  to  make  money,  even  though  their  process  may 
strengthen  that  other  arch-enemy  of  the  human  race — 
Ignorance.  The  prostitute,  the  counterfeiter,  the  vendor 
of  diseased  meat,  and  the  Thomas  Vixon  type  of  author 
are  the  four  greatest  perverters  of  society  that  I  can 
think  of  at  this  moment.  I  am  looking  forward  to  the 
time  when  the  average  reader  of  novels  will  not  sur- 
render his  emotions  to  the  will  of  men  of  this  calibre.'' 

The  passenger  did  not  reply  and,  after  a  few  moments, 
Dixon  continued : 

"But  it  is  only  the  non-thinking  whites  who  allow 
themselves  to  be  thus  swindled,  for  the  arguments  of 
anti-Negro  writers,  scientific  and  sentimental,  are  so 
padded  with  rhetoric,  so  childishly  exclamatory  and  exag- 
gerated, that  were  it  not  for  hysteria  these  non-thinkers 
could  not  help  but  see  through  the  cheat,  so  transparent 
it  is.  One  of  the  heartiest  laughs  I  have  ever  had  was 
after  reading  that  book  you  mentioned.  It  is  supposed 
to  be  the  last  words  in  color  jingoism.  Honestly,  I 
pitied  the  man  who  had  to  carry  around  such  thoughts 
of  his  fellow-men.  In  one  of  the  anti-Negro  books,  a 
book  to  be  found  in  the  Chicago  Public  Library,  as  well 


120 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


as  in  the  Washington,  D.  C,  New  York  and  other  public 
libraries,  I  found  all  sorts  of  annotations,  mostly  against 
the  author.  This  one,  on  page  124  of  the  Chicago  copy, 
interested  me  (I  have  it  in  my  note  book  here).  It  runs: 
'If  you  think  I  believe  what  you  print,  you  are  a  fool.  I 
was  born  in  Chicago  and  have  a  colored  teacher  and 
several  colored  friends.  You  don't  know  colored  peo- 
ple's ways  of  the  North,  you  fool. — Written  by  a  white 
boy  14j^  years  old.' 

"I  read  the  book  through  twice,"  continued  Dixon, 
''and  it  reminded  me  strongly  of  a  filter  whose  function 
is  to  retain  all  the  impurities,  but  to  let  the  good  escape. 
And  in  this  instance,  as  the  filter  was  an  animated  one, 
it,  of  course,  deposited  some  of  its  own  mud.  I  found 
the  book  fascinating — a  most  interesting  study,  not  of 
the  Negro,  but  of  the  psychology  of  the  author — Robert 
Wilson  Shufeldt.  Even  Thomas  Vixon,  with  his  wild- 
eyed  reasoning,  can  find  something  good  in  the  Negro, 
but  to  this  author  everything  has  the  taste  of  a  green 
persimmon.  This  author  relates  how  he  had  Negro 
boys  to  commit  self-abuse  for  only  twenty-five  cents,  and 
then  uses  this  instance  to  prove  the  depravity  of  Negroes ! 
It  is  safe  to  predict  that  a  Negro,  so  perverting  a  white 
boy,  would,  in  a  Northern  state,  have  received  a  term  in 
prison,  and  in  the  South  his  charred  bones  would  have 
been  bleached  white  again.  Shufeldt  not  only  goes  scot- 
free,  but  the  product  of  his  loathsome  mind  is  placed  in 
the  company  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton.  The  'Medical 
Review  of  Reviews'  says  that  there  is  a  shameful  chap- 
ter in  the  history  of  American  medicine,  entitled  the 
Negro.  I  am  sure  that  Shufeldt  must  be  the  chief  cor- 
respondent to  that  chapter.  Circe,  with  her  magic  spell, 
used  to  transform  men  into  the  kind  of  animal  whose 
spirit  they  suggested — lions,  tigers,  or  jackals,  as  the  case 
may  be.  The  companions  of  Ulysses,  as  you  might  recall, 
were  changed  into  hogs.    Had  she  espied  this  scribbler 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO   MAN  121 


it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  he  could  have  escaped  the 
incarnation  of  a  scavenger-buzzard.  Although  Mr. 
Shufeldt's  book  about  the  Negro  is  so  interesting  a  study- 
in  the  psychology  of  himself,  I  strongly  object  to  its 
presence  in  a  library  along  with  the  works  of  Havelock 
Ellis,  Loeb  and  Fabre.  Its  proper  place,  I  think,  would 
be  in  a  museum  of  psychological  freaks,  and  if  there  is 
no  such  place,  then  treat  it  as  we  do  the  impurities  from 
our  filters." 

Just  then  the  porter  from  the  next  car  entered  the 
room,  and  calling  Dixon  aside,  engaged  him  in  conver- 
sation. 

When  he  was  gone,  Dixon  returned  to  his  seat  and 
continued :  "To  my  mind  there  are  three  points  in  com- 
mon with  these  Negro-hating  authors :  first,  they  inva- 
riably begin  by  expressing  their  sympathy  for  the  Negro, 
Avhom  they  then  lambast  with  a  vindictiveness  that 
makes  us  thankful,  for  their  own  sakes,  that  they  did  not 
declare  themselves  our  enemies ;  second,  their  strabism, 
and,  third,  their  great  preponderance  of  emotion  over 
intellect.  As  a  rule,  they  evince  all  that  lack  of  reason- 
ing power  vvrhich  they,  themselves,  attribute  to  the  Negro. 
The  hysterical  preacher  in  Thomas  Vixon's  'Freckled 
Jeopard'  has  his  exact  counterpart  in  another  preacher 
I  knew,  a  New  Jersey  Negro,  who,  like  him,  was  trying 
to  work  his  way  to  fame  and  fortune  by  stirring  up  color 
hatred.  These  men  should  be  laughed  at — never  taken 
seriously.  For  my  part,  I  have  enough  to  bother  me 
already  without  taking  to  heart  the  babblings  of  these 
learned  ignoramuses.  I  speak  against  them  merely  be- 
cause I  see  how  they  are  adding  to  the  already  large 
sum  of  human  misery." 

"But,"  objected  the  passenger,  "some  of  these  men 
are  really  expressing  their  honest  opinion." 

"True,  sir,"  assented  Dixon.  "For  instance,  there  is 
Prof.  William  Benjamin  Smith  of  Tulane  University, 
who  has  written  a  book  to  prove  that  the  Negro  is  not 


122 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


human.  Then  there  is  another  author  whose  name  I 
have  forgotten,  but  whose  book  I  saw  in  the  Los  Angeles 
Public  Library.  This  learned  gentleman  proved  to  his 
own  satisfaction  that  the  Negro  was  a  survival  of  the 
pre-Adamite  period  and  had  neither  part  nor  lot  with  the 
human  race.  Then  there  is  another  author,  who  has 
attempted  to  prove  that  the  serpent  which  tempted  Eve 
was  a  Negro.  This  theory  was  taken  so  seriously  that 
a  book,  a  copy  of  which  may  be  seen  in  the  Chicago  Pub- 
lic Library,  was  written  in  its  refutation.  As  you  say, 
sir,  these  men  may  be  honest,  but  cannot  the  same  be 
said  of  the  DoAvieites  of  Zion  City,  111.,  who  maintain 
that  the  earth  is  flat  and  has  four  corners  like  a  table?" 

A  brief  pause,  then  Dixon  added :  "But  lest  you 
might  think  I  am  exaggerating,  I  will  give  you  a  sample 
of  the  logic  of  these  anti-Negro  writers.  This  is  from 
Shufeldt:  'Black  wenches,'  he  says,  'are  constantly 
sought  by  white  men  of  the  various  planes  of  society  for 
carnal  gratification.'  He  goes  on  to  say  that  the  far 
greater  part  of  the  mixing  is  caused  by  immoral  white 
men ;  then  further  on,  as  a  remedy  against  amalgamation, 
he  advocates  the  emasculation  of  the  Negro ! 

"Here's  another  jewel  of  humor  from  the  same  author 
He  speaks  of  the  mulatto,  'Some  are  wonderfully  hand- 
some creatures.'  he  says,  'with  superb  figures,  but  hand- 
some and  fine-physiqued,  only  in  the  sense  that  our 
American  skunk  is  likewise  a  beautiful  creature.  It  is 
also  a  black  animal  with  more  or  less  of  a  white  stripe 
in  it  that  is  given  to  stealing  chickens,  and  can,  when  ir- 
ritated, elevate  its  tail  and  raise  the  most  outrageous  stink, 
which  is  quite  sufficient  to  check  the  progress  of  any 
Anglo-Saxon,  however  robust  and  civilized  he  may  be.' 

"Here  is  something  yet  more  humorous.  This  was 
uttered  in  the  halls  of  the  so-called  greatest  deliberative 
body  in  the  world :  'Go  down  to  the  Pension  Office,' 
says  this  verbal  pyrotechnist,  'and  take  out  the  Africans. 
Then  go  down  to  the  War  and  Navy  Building  and  take 


FROM   SUPERMAN    TO  MAN 


123 


those  sons  of  the  cocoanut  region  who  sit  there  with  big 
brown  drops  of  sweat  coming  out  of  their  foreheads. 
Kick  them  out!   Turn  this  brood  of  African  tree-climbers 
out  to  earn  a  living  on  the  farm  and  in  the  fields.'  " , 
Both  men  laughed  heartily. 

''But  it  is  to  the  white  man  that  these  stupid  men  of 
letters  are  doing  the  most  harm,"  continued  Dixon,  seri- 
ously. "Their  mission,  so  they  say,  is  to  uphold  the 
supremacy  of  the  white  man,  but  they  could  not  do  a 
surer  thing  to  shatter  it.  If  the  color  jingoes  of  America, 
Australia  and  South  Africa  could  see  beyond  their  own 
noses  they  would  see  that  they  are  making  enemies  of 
the  darker  peoples.  When  the  average  white  person 
reads  one  of  these  diatribes  against  darker  humanity,  it 
only  makes  him  pufif  his  chest  out  a  little  more ;  but  when 
a  non-white  reads  it,  its  sole  effect  is  to  produce  a  deep 
and  bitter  hatred  against  white  persons.  And  all  these 
peoples  are  getting  to  the  stage  where  an  insult  to  one 
means  an  insult  to  all.  No  man  or  group  of  men,  how- 
ever strong,  can  afford  to  thus  make  enemies  unneces- 
sarily. 'No  man,'  says  Burke,  'ever  had  a  point  of  pride 
that  did  not  prove  injurious  to  him.'  I  have  given  a 
great  deal  of  earnest  thought  to  the  subject  and  I  am 
firmly  convinced  that  the  present  generation  of  whites 
in  America  is  making  the  biggest  mistake  of  its  life  in 
this  treatment  of  the  so-called  Negro,  a  mistake  for  which 
I  sincerely  hope  future  generations  will  not  curse  it, 
even  as  the  people  of  Civil  War  times  must  have  cursed 
the  introducers  of  slavery.  Napoleon,  who  certainly 
ought  to  know,  said  that  one  cannot  build  an  empire  on 
force.  I  do  not  want  to  preach,  sir,  but  I  consider  it  a 
very  poor  policy  to  make  an  enemy  of  anyone,  however 
insignificant  he  may  be." 

"I  never  looked  at  it  in  that  light  before,"  admitted 
the  passenger,  gravely. 

"I'll  tell  you  an  incident,  unpleasant  though  it  is," 
continued  Dixon,  "just  to  show  you  the  effect  of  one  of 


124 


PROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


these  anti-Negro  productions  on  the  Negro — an  almost 
typical  case:  A  friend  of  mine,  usually  rational,  con- 
fessed to  me  his  feelings  after  seeing  a  certain  motion 
picture  which  has  been  going  the  rounds.  He  said  that 
when  he  saw  this  picture  defaming  his  people,  and  noted 
how  the  white  audience,  persons  of  apparently  the  best 
class,  were  wrought  to  the  highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm 
over  it,  a  supreme  hatred  for  all  white  persons  came 
over  him,  and  he  said  he  was  praying  to  God  that  some 
one  of  them  would  but  just  offend  him  the  least  bit  and 
thus  give  him  an  excuse  to  brain  the  offender.  And  to 
make  it  all  the  worse,  he  said,  they  had  the  audacity  to 
sing  'My  Country,  'Tis  of  Thee,  Sweet  Land  of  Liberty.' 
He  confessed  that  in  the  future  the  most  meaningless 
ragtime  air  would  have  a  greater  significance  for  him. 
Similarly,  a  white  lady  told  me  of  another  lady  who  took 
her  little  boy  to  see  what  effect  the  picture  would  have 
on  him,  and  she  said  that  the  boy,  when  he  saw  the 
Negro  ill-treating  the  white  woman  (as  it  is  in  the  pic- 
ture), said  he  felt  as  if  he  could  kill  every  Negro  he  met." 

"This  is  regrettable,"  admitted  the  passenger,  "but 
what  are  you  going  to  do?    This  is  a  free  country." 

"I  would  suggest,"  replied  Dixon,  "that  these  men — 
men  like  Borah,  Reed,  Tillman,  Vardaman,  Dixon 
and  others,  who  are  always  yapping  at  the  Negro, 
shift  their  attention  for  a  time  to  the  vices  of  their  own 
people — yea,  let  them  look  into  their  own  hearts  and  they 
will  see,  to  quote  from  Schopenhauer,  Tt  is  the  old  story 
of  the  dog  barking  at  his  own  image.  It  is  himself  that 
he  sees,  and  not  another  dog,  as  he  fancies.'  " 

"Well,"  next  suggested  the  passenger,  "there  are 
many  persons  who  have  befriended  the  Negro." 

"I  was  just  thinking  of  them,"  replied  the  other.  "I 
have  always  maintained  that  there  are  two  classes  of 
persons  alike ;  those  whites  who  say  all  Negroes  are  bad, 
and  those  Negroes  who  say  all  whites  are  prejudiced 
with  the  Negro,  the  worse  of  the  two.    Many  of  these 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


125 


persons  to  whom  you  refer  have  been  benefactors  of  the 
Negro,  even  in  the  teeth  of  jeers  and  ostracism  from 
their  own  people,  as  certain  Northerners  who  have  given 
up  promising  careers  to  devote  a  lifetime  of  service  to 
training  the  Negro.  Then  there  are  those  who,  through 
press  and  public,  have  nobly  striven  to  obtain  justice  for 
him,  as  well  as  those  who  have  given  generously  of  their 
means.  Men  and  women  like  these,  as  was  Voltaire, 
Victor  Hugo,  Elizabeth  Fry,  and  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe, 
are  the  conscience  of  their  generation.  The  fittest  trib- 
ute one  can  pay  to  these  persons  is  to  say  that  they  are 
the  living  embodiments  of  the  spirit  of  America — that 
spirit  which  declared  that  all  men  are  equal  and  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights. 

"But  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  that  these  persons 
may  be  divided  into  three  classes :  those  who  believe  in 
segregated  justice,  this  type  predominates  in  the  South; 
those  who  stand  for  equal  justice  only  because  it  offends 
their  sense  of  justice,  but  who  really  have  a  contempt 
for  Negroes,  especially  full-blooded  ones,  this  type  pre- 
dominates in  the  North;  and  those  who  really  believe 
that  the  Negro  is  human  and  should  be  treated  as  such, 
and  then,  even  among  these  I  have  met  a  few  who  had 
a  heartache  at  the  sight  of  a  Jew." 

Dixon  now  consulted  his  watch  and  informed  the 
other  that  they  would  arrive  at  the  next  station  in  fif- 
teen minutes  and  would  stay  there  ten  minutes.  Remem- 
bering that  he  probably  would  not  have  another  chance 
to  speak  with  this  man,  he  decided  to  summarize  his 
argument,  and  as  the  other  did  not  speak,  he  continued : 

''Looking  back  on  the  conversation  we  have  had,  sir, 
and  supported  by  a  mass  of  other  information  gathered 
from  various  sources,  I  am  confident  that  every  argu- 
ment brought  forward  to  prove  Negro  inferiority,  of 
which  I  have  heard,  is  wrong;  that  there  is  no  bad  trait 
possessed  by  the  Negro  which  cannot  be  paralleled  by 
the  white  man.    In  short,  'that  black  is  not  so  very  black, 


126 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


nor  white  so  very  white' ;  that  the  Negro  is  disliked,  not  so 
much  for  his  features,  his  criminality  and  his  imputed  bad 
traits,  as  for  the  color  of  his  skin  and  the  nature  of  his  hair. 

"But  is  that  the  real  reason?"  he  continued,  in  a  spirit 
of  raillery.  "For  instance,  if  a  Negro  has  money,  he 
will  find  any  number  of  whites  to  kowtow  to  him.  For- 
eign Negroes,  too,  or  any  Negro  who  can  pass  off  as 
Spanish,  French — in  short,  anything  else  but  United 
States  citizens,  are  better  treated  though  these  persons 
are  of  the  same  mixture  of  black  and  white.  Many  of 
the  most  prejudiced  whites,  too,  have  Negro  intimates. 
Really,  this  prejudice,  habit,  affectation,  whim  or  what- 
ever it  is,  is  so  ridiculous,  so  utterly  opposed  to  every- 
thing bordering  on  intelligence,  that  it  is  a  wonder  these 
persons  never  happen  to  see  themselves  in  their  true 
light  and  have  a  hearty  laugh  at  their  own  expense." 

"What  do  you  think  would  offer  a  solution  to  the 
problem?"  asked  the  passenger  earnestly. 

"A  sense  of  humor." 

"Something  easier  than  that." 

"Then  I  should  like  to  see  the  formation  of  a  national 
commission  for  an  inquiry  into  the  subject  and  to  ascer- 
tain the  best  means  for  adjusting  the  relationship  be- 
tween these  two  bodies  of  our  citizens.  There  are  also 
three  measures  which  I  have  always  thought  would  help 
a  great  deal  :  first,  text-books  in  the  public  schools,  teach- 
ing in  a  simple  manner  the  latest  scientific  findings  in 
this  matter,  without  making  any  special  reference  to  the 
situation  here  in  America;  second,  the  establishment  of 
federal  schools  in  those  parts  of  the  South  where  the 
Negroes  abound;  and  third,  a  non-political  provision  for 
a  certain  number  of  Negro  congressmen.  I  consider  the 
matter  sufficiently  serious  to  be  taken  in  hand  by  the 
federal  government,  and  the  stoppage  of  the  evil  now 
might — indeed  I  am  sure  it  would — save  future  genera- 
tions a  great  deal  of  trouble.  Just  imagine  what  would 
have  been  saved  to  the  country — 600,000  lives  and  fifteen 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


127 


billions  of  dollars — if  the  slaves  had  been  freed  at  the 
founding  of  the  Republic.  I  do  not  see  why  we  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  with  our  superior  education, 
should  be  behind  countries  like  Brazil  in  this  matter. 
This  country  is  big  enough  and  rich  enough — and  broad- 
minded  enough,  too,  if  it  only  will — to  admit  of  every 
citizen  having  a  square  deal,  and  yet  leave  a  mighty 
surplus.  A  little  more  assertion  of  our  better  selves 
when  dealing  with  others  will  go  a  far  way  toward  mak- 
ing us  and  them  happier.  In  this  respect  I  have  found 
Hamlet's  injunction  to  Polonius,  regarding  the  treatment 
of  the  players,  a  most  excellent  one.  When  Hamlet,  as 
you  might  recall,  sir,  enjoined  Polonius  to  take  good  care 
of  the  players,  the  latter  said :  'My  lord,  I  will  use  them 
according  to  their  deserts.'  But  Hamlet  exclaimed: 
"God's  bodykins,  man,  much  better;  use  every  man  after 
his  deserts,  and  who  shall  'scape  whipping?  Use  them 
after  your  own  honor  and  dignity ;  the  less  they  deserve, 
the  more  merit  is  in  your  bounty.'  " 


FOURTH  DAY. 

'The  strongest  is  never  strong  enough  to  be  always  master  unless 
he  transforms  his  strength  into  right  and  obedience  to  duty." — 
J.  J.  Rousseau. 

The  next  day,  before  arriving  at  his  destination,  the 
passenger,  calling  Dixon  to  his  seat,  invited  him  to  sit 
down,  and  with  an  air  of  frankness  and  earnestness  that 
greatly  gratified  him,  said :  want  to  thank  you  for 
enabling  me  to  see  the  other  side  of  the  story.  I  never 
did  realize  before  the  vast  injustice  that  is  being  done 
to  certain  American  citizens,  and  also  the  vast  amount  of 
ignorance  we,  Caucasians,  have  to  combat  in  our  own 
people.  Hitherto  I  have  prided  myself  on  my  broad 
humanity,  but  I  now  see  how  narrow  it  has  been.  I 


128 


FROM   SUPERMAN   TO  MAN 


think  every  true  American  should  do  his  best  to  end  this 
great  wrong,  and  I  am  going  to  do  mine.  As  a  legis- 
lator, I  promise  you  to  see  that  the  truth  is  more  fully 
disseminated.  And  more,  yesterday  you  spoke  of  Ira 
Aldridge,  the  famous  Shakespearean  actor.  Now,  I  have 
been  thinking  that  since  a  Negro  could  win  such  high 
dramatic  honors,  it  would  be  quite  possible  to  find  Negro 
talent  for  our  best  dramas.  The  connection  is  this :  I 
have  interests  in  a  large  motion  picture  concern  (here  he 
handed  Dixon  a  card)  and  I  have  been  thinking  that  in 
order  to  create  a  better  understanding  of  the  Negro,  and 
as  an  offset  to  the  caricatures  so  often  made  of  him,  that 
I  would  get  Negro  actors  for  such  plays  as  call  forth  the 
best  expressions  of  the  soul.  I  will  begin  with  a  few 
and  hope  to  popularize  the  venture.  In  the  meantime, 
you  shall  hear  from  me.  Call  to  see  me  any  time  within 
the  next  two  months,  and  I  will  show  you  how  motion 
pictures  are  made.  Glad  indeed  to  have  met  you."  And 
the  two  men  shook  hands  cordially. 

"Thank  you,  sir,"  said  Dixon,  in  a  voice  vibrant  with 
gratitude.  "And  I  must  say  that  I  note  many  signs 
pointing  to  an  amicable  solution  of  this  vexing  question 
of  race.  Among  them  are  these :  The  salt  of  the  intel- 
lectual world,  as  represented  by  Abdul-Baha,  Liebknecht, 
Shaw  and  others,  seems  determined  to  disseminate  truth 
in  spite  of  the  barriers  of  nation,  race  or  creed ;  a  grow- 
ing desire  on  the  part  of  all  peoples  to  probe  for  truth, 
despite  emotional  influences ;  and  so  far  as  we  of  America 
are  concerned,  the  earnest  and  untiring  effort  of  a  very 
large  number  of  our  citizens  to  make  of  our  beloved 
country  a  real  Republic." 


THE  END. 


